By: Sean Crose
On Friday night, the World Boxing Association released the following statement on social media: “The WBA Championships Committee, in another decision following the plan to reduce the world title, has ordered for the match between Super Middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBBoxing) and his must-have opponent Erislandy Lara (@Laraboxing) #GGGLara. And so it looks like Gennady Golovkin, after a one-sided loss to Canelo Alvarez last weekend, is being ordered to defend his WBA middleweight title against Erislandy Lara, who is also ordered to defend his WBA middleweight title. HIS before Golovkin. Admittedly the WBA has too many titles, and now it wants to sort things out a bit. After all, there should really only be one titration table per mass division.
It was still a solid fight, although it was clear at this point that each boxer was past his prime. That’s too bad, because in their prime, these two are something else. Now, however, Golovkin is forty years old. Lara, meanwhile, is thirty-six years old. Needless to say, both the Golovkin and Lara camps had thirty days to come to an agreement. If no agreement is reached, the auction’s promotion then goes to the highest bidder in an auction known as the purse bid. If the bid happens, Golovkin will receive three-quarters of the money.
In addition to impressive records, what each man has in common is Canelo. Canelo defeated Lara by decision in an extremely close fight in 2014, a battle that some thought Lara deserved to win. Golovkin, of course, had two extremely close and controversial fights of his own with Canelo, in 2017 and 2018 respectively, but Golovkin didn’t look the same as his old self when he finally did. and Canelo met for the third time this past Saturday. As for Lara, his last game was an impressive round of 16 goal against Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan last spring.
Truth be told, this still makes for a fascinating fight. Golovkin doesn’t look the same as he did last weekend, but a dated Golovkin is still better than most modern fighting games. As for Lara, he shows he can still beat big-name competitors with ease – and in entertaining fashion. Provided each man remains capable of performing effectively in the ring, their contrasting styles, combined with their likeable personalities, could make this battle – if it turns out to be – an eventful one. Must-see event for serious fans. It may not be a game changer, but a Golovkin-Lara match could very well make for a pretty stellar boxing night.
