Gennady Golovkin, most commonly seen as one of the greatest Middleweights of the modern era, has disappointedly vacated another world title in his possession. After vacating his IBF title roughly a month before, the Kazakhstani Middleweight has apparently decided to also part ways with his WBA ‘Super’ belt.
This makes it the second time that Gennady Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KO’s) has vacated a title after a mandatory order had been set to face an opponent. The first order was set by the IBF who mandated Golovkin to fight undefeated Brazilian contender Esquiva Falcao (30-0, 20 KO’s), but the former unified Kazakhstani champion opted to vacate his title instead.
Following GGG’s relinquishment of his IBF title, the WBA soon emerged with their own mandate for Golovkin to face the recently Cuban-turned-American, Erislandy Lara (29-3-3, 17 KO’s), but the two-time unified champion has now decided to forgo any attempt to defend his title by vacating it. This now makes the former ‘Super’ champion beltless with his recent relinquishment of the second and last world title in his possession.
In a message sent out to the WBA, Golovkin stated that he was “not clear about his next step in boxing”, which could be interpreted as a sign of impending retirement given his rather ripe age of 40 years old. In the same message, he also implored the WBA to continue with their plans to move the recently vacated title along, but also indicated that he would return to the ring as soon as he has “solved everything”.
With his message intentionally left vague, Golovkin’s “next step” might also involve him moving to another division, though that would naturally leave more questions than answers with him having been two opponents away from unifying all the titles and becoming undisputed.
With the WBA ‘Super’ belt at 160 lbs now vacant, the WBA can either promote Erislandy Lara to ‘Super’ champion, or arrange for him to fight another contender to claim the now-vacant ‘Super’ title. With the WBA having stated their intention to analyze Lara’s “status as champion” while they will also look into who Lara could possibly face next, possible opponents that appear to be close in the running are the #1 and #2 contenders in the division, Michael Zerafa (31-4, 19 KO’s) and Sergio Martinez (56-3-2, 31 KO’s) respectively.
Only two world champions now remain in the division with American Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KO’s) holding the WBC belt, and Kazakhstani – Janibek Alimkhanuly (13-0, 8 KO’s) being the WBO champion. With two world titles having recently been vacated in the span of a month, two – or possibly even one if the IBF and WBA make their titles available for one bout – world champions might possibly emerge this year, and create for an exciting and competitive division once more.
