Gennady Golovkin vs. Erislandy Lara: Return of the “Battle of the Forties”

With his decision to relinquish the IBF middleweight world title, Kazakh Gennady Golovkin once again opened the doors to a duel against Cuban left-hander Erislandy Lara in an updated version of what some called months ago the “battle of the forties.”

Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) had the obligation to defend his belt against undefeated Brazilian Esquiva Falcao (30-0, 20 KOs), ranked first by the IBF and third by the WBO, but after the promoters, television stations and general public determined that there was little interest in that fight, Golovkin decided to walk away.

“While Gennady remains committed to fighting again, he has not made up his mind about many of the elements critical to planning and arranging his next bout,” Golovkin’s representatives stated in a letter to the IBF. “In light of the impending deadline for conclusion of free negotiations with IBF mandatory No. 1 contender Esquiva Falcao, Gennady does not wish to drag the process out any longer.”

Following Golovkin’s decision, the WBA immediately issued a statement urging him to begin negotiations with Lara (3-29-3, 17 KOs) with the purpose of defining a single 160-pound champion, since GGG has the super champion belt and Lara the regular belt.

According to the WBA document, if Golovkin and Lara do not reach an agreement within a 15-day deadline (it expires on February 23), the fight will go to public auction where the promoter will be determined, along with other details. If it does go to auction, Golovkin will receive 75 percent of the winning bid and Lara the remaining 25 percent.

Last year, the WBA also ordered the fight between Golovkin and Lara and gave them until October 23 to reach an agreement, or else a monetary bid would be organized in Panama City where the WBA is headquarted.

According to the WBA statutes, the fight had to be carried out within a period of no more than 120 days after Golovkin conquered the title on April 9, 2022 – a day after GGG turned 40 years old. Golovkin anesthetized Japanese Ryota Murata in the ninth round of that fight, unifying the WBA super champion belts held by Murata and IBF belt held by GGG.

As the deadline for the Golovkin-Lara bout had expired on August 8th of that same year, the WBA granted “special permission” for Golovkin to cross gloves with Mexican Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez, which ended the trilogy with a unanimous victory for Canelo on September 17th at the T-Mobile Arena, where the Aztec redhead retained all four of his 168-pound titles.

After Golovkin’s loss to Canelo Álvarez, the WBA reached a surprising agreement with the IBF in which Golovkin had to make two mandatory fights: the first with Falcao and then against Lara.

WBA President Gilberto Mendoza explained that in a joint resolution with the IBF, they had determined that Golovkin would first fight the IBF mandatory challenger Esquiva Falcao, and then the winner of that bout would face Lara.

But Golovkin has thrown a wrench in the intentions of both organizations by leaving the IBF belt vacant. He now has the obligation to face Lara, who will turn 40 on April 11.

Erislandy Lara

Lara seized the world super welterweight title in December 2014, winning by unanimous decision against American Ishe Smith at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

In 2021, the elusive boxer moved up to middleweight and captured the vacant “regular” WBA 160-pound belt with a first-round stoppage of Thomas LaManna (33-5-1, 13 KOs) at Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California.

A year later, on May 28, 2022, Lara applied chloroform in the eighth round to Irishman Gary O’Sullivan (31-4, 21 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn where he made his first defense of the WBA belt.

Article submitted by Jorge Juan Álvarez in Spanish.

Please note any adjustments made were for clarification purposes and any errors in translation were unintentional.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE