Gennady "GGG" Golovkin is ramping up the pressure on Miguel Cotto to face him this weekend by making sure he will be in attendance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn where Cotto will make the first defense of his WBC middleweight title vs. Daniel Geale, whom Golovkin knocked out last summer.
"I want to watch this fight in person and look forward to fighting the winner to show who the real WBC middleweight champion is," Golovkin said. "A unification fight with the winner is very important to me."
Golovkin is the No. 1 contender for the WBC title and the mandatory challenger, although WBC president Mauricio Sulaimon has said he is willing to make an exception for Cotto to fight Canelo Alvarez if he beats Geale. One condition for that exception, however, is that both Cotto and Alvarez must guarantee they will fight Golovkin next if they win.
Cotto does not appear enamored with that stipulation, and there is speculation he'd rather drop the WBC belt and fight Alvarez in a non-title bout if need be rather than face Golovkin.
"I'm always going to do what's best for me and my family. The only person who dictates what happens in my career is myself," Cotto said. He also indicated his focus is on fighting Alvarez next.
"We believe after this fight [against Geale], we have a verbal agreement with HBO, and we have a verbal agreement with Golden Boy [to face Canelo], but we'll see what happens after this."
Golovkin is undefeated, holds two middleweight belts (WBA & IBO) and has knocked out 20 consecutive opponents.
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