Gennady "GGG" Golovkin was in the ring vs. his toughest opponent yet when he faced Martin Murray in Monte Carlo Saturday night, but like the 31 men before him, Murray succumbed to Golovkin's vast power and was defeated.
The durable Englishman lasted into the 11th round, the furthest any opponent has taken Golovkin, but he could not avoid being Golovkin's 19th consecutive knockout victim. After the fight, Golovkin had narrowed his focus for his next fight to one man only--WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto.
Cotto is currently without an opponent for his next bout, which many believe will happen in June. Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler said he is willing to make sacrifices to complete a bout against Cotto, which would be the biggest of Golovkin's career.
"We're prepared to make significant concessions to get Cotto into the ring to get this fight done," Loeffler said. Recently Cotto has been known to make a lot of demands during negotiations. Sergio Martinez called him a "diva" during their talks, while Canelo Alvarez grew so frustrated during their negotiations that they left the table and signed on to fight James Kirkland on cable.
Cotto hasn't shown much interest in fighting Golovkn up to this point, but the names currently in the mix to be Cotto's next opponent are underwhelming. Timothy Bradley has some name value, but he would be jumping up by more than a full weight class to take on Cotto, and just fought Diego Chaves to an unsatisfying draw in his last bout.
Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios is another name, and while he has a granite chin and fan-pleasing style, he is not the draw that Golovkin has become. Amir Khan looms as a dark horse, and has said he'd be interested in facing Cotto at a catch weight. Khan would be making a big jump in weight as well though, having just two fights at 147 pounds under his belt.
[Yahoo!]
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