Boxing fans hoping that English super middleweight Carl Froch would be the man who steps up to face Gennady "GGG" Golovkin in the first huge fight of Golovkin's career are disappointed today, because Froch, 38, has retired from boxing.
"I'm incredibly proud of what I've achieved in boxing but now is the right moment to hang up my gloves. I have nothing left to prove and my legacy speaks for itself," Froch said. He will be moving on to a commentary role with Sky Sports.
The news is not completely unexpected for Golovkin, whose rumored bout with Froch became a hot topic for a short time in May before dying down again, and giving way to calls for actual middleweight challengers like WBC champion Miguel Cotto and newly crowned IBF champion David Lemieux.
Cotto is all but assured to face Canelo Alvarez in a pay-per-view mega fight in November, but Lemieux seems like a reasonable option. Like Golovkin, Lemieux is a fan-friendly knockout artist; he knocked down Hassan N'Dam six times in their IBF title fight earlier this month, and had won his previous three fights by knockout.
There was talk that Lemieux would have to face a mandatory challenger before getting a unification fight vs. Golovkin, but the tide is turning there. "HBO is completely on board with Golovkin-Lemieux but it's up to (Lemieux's) team, what they think is best for him," Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler said.
Golovkin has also continued to be mentioned alongside Andre Ward, although the sniping in the media between those camps has become intense. Most recently Loeffler proposed some terms that are unlikely to coax Ward into accepting a fight.
"GGG is now clearly the 'A' side yet Ward still would want to dictate terms, which makes no sense," Loeffler said. "GGG would fight Ward on a 50-50 basis, the best 160-pounder versus the best 168-pounder [at] 164 [and] a 50-50 split on all proceeds. But it seems like Ward needs more tuneup fights."
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