Gennady Golovkin vs Esquiva Falcao with Erislandy Lara to Face the Winner

A surprising twist has occurred in the middleweight division pertaining to the recent deal between the WBA and the IBF which involves world champions Gennady Golovkin and Erislandy Lara, as well as undefeated Brazilian Esquiva Falcao.

A few weeks ago, the WBA ordered the duel between GGG and the Cuban southpaw Lara, super champion and regular champion respectively. They were given until October 23 to reach an agreement or otherwise it would go to a purse bid.

The WBA explained that according to rule C.11 of its statutes, the champion (Golovkin) must defend the crown against the official contender (Lara), no later than 120 days after winning the title.

The Golovkin-Lara confrontation, with the possibility of materializing at the beginning of the coming year, would put two boxers in the ring who are both approximately 40 years old.

Golovkin seized the WBA title in Saitama, Japan on April 9 of this year – one day after his 40th birthday-, when he put Japanese Ryota Murata to sleep in the ninth round, unifying the super champion belts of the WBA (held by the local fighter) and that of the IBF, which GGG held.

The deadline to defend the WBA world belt expired on August 8, but even so, the WBA granted a “special permit” for Golovkin to collide with Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez in the third duel between them. On September 17^th, they met at 168 pounds, in which Canelo retained the four most important belts in boxing: WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO.

Now the WBA (in a 180-degree turn) has agreed with the IBF that Golovkin will have two mandatory fights, the first against Brazilian Esquiva Falcao, ranked at the top of 160 pounds in the second mentioned sanctioning body, and then against Lara, who passed “to the waiting circle” and will face the winner between GGG and Falcao (if a different “resolution” does not arise in the meantime).

WBA President Gilberto Mendoza told the site El Izquierdazo that he and the IBF had passed a joint resolution that would have Golovkin fight IBF mandatory Esquiva Falcao and the winner would then face Lara.

“The double mandatory will be communicated to Golovkin soon”, he added. “First with Falcao and then the winner against Erislandy Lara. There will no longer be licenses from us, and I don’t think there are any from the IBF either”, concluded Gilberto.

Lara took over the vacant WBA belt on May 1st in his debut in the middleweight category, anesthetizing American Thomas LaManna (33-5-1, 13 KOs) in the opening round in Carson, CA.

More recently, in his first title defense, Lara knocked out Irishman Gary “El Pincho” O’Sullivan (31-5-0, 21 KOs) in the eighth round at the Barclays Center, in New York.

On July 4, 2008, Lara debuted as a professional fighter with a victory by decision in four rounds against the Russian Ivan Maslov in Ankara, Turkey. A year earlier, during the 2007 Pan American Games, Lara left the Cuban delegation, along with fellow southpaw and double Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux.

The southpaw Esquiva Falcao (30-0-0, 20 KOs) comes from unanimously defeating the Argentine Cristian Ríos (23-15-3, 7 KOs), also a southpaw, in 10 rounds on May 29th in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

In the amateur ranks, Falcao won the bronze medal at the World Championships which were held in 201 in Baku, Azerbaijan. He lost in the semifinals against the Japanese Ryota Murata. A year later, he won the silver medal in the 75-kilogram division at the London Olympics, again defeated by Murata in the finals by a close score of 14-13.

Article submitted by Jorge Juan Alvarez in Spanish.

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

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