BoxRec

"Gennadiy Golovkin vs Kamil Szeremeta now planned for Nov. 21"

DAZN’s bizarrely Sisyphean quest to pit Gennadiy Golovkin against Kamil Szeremeta may finally be coming to an end. Mike Coppinger reports that the fight is now “being targeted for Nov. 21 on DAZN.”

If it feels like you’ve been hearing about this matchup all year, it’s because you have. It’s had at least four separate working dates in 2020, with the most notable delay coming from a Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KO) calf injury. “GGG” has not fought since his controversial decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko last October, a card which also saw Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KO) finish Oscar Cortes.

Szeremeta is far more Steve Rolls than Sergiy Derevyanchenko, and while Golovkin’s decline is obvious, it’s hard to see this being anything but a showcase for Kazakhstan’s mightiest export. It was originally meant to set the stage for a 2021 trilogy match with Canelo Alvarez, but with the Mexican star embroiled in a legal battle, I wouldn’t count on that plan coming to fruition.

DAZN certainly isn’t counting on it, as they’re pitting this head-to-head against Errol Spence Jr. vs. Danny Garcia.

Thoughts?

If GGG’s 21st November fight-date comes to fruition, he would have been inactive for 13 months and will be approaching 39 years of age.

It also seems strange for DAZN to televise GGG’s bout against an anonymous, unheralded and unaccomplished foe at the same time as the Spence Jr.-Garcia fight.

I do not mean to be disrespectful, because I don’t know much about the Polish fighter. However, I’ve noticed he’s never beaten anyone remotely close to being regarded as a top-ten middleweight.

Is he any good, because for me, it’s hard to tell if the calibre of the opposition he’s faced is lacklustre in nature? He definitely seems rather feather-fisted!

Perhaps I’m being needlessly derogatory, but Szeremeta seems to be another Rolls-Martirosyan,-Wade type opponent.

Does anyone know the status of this fight?

GGG hasn’t got a fight lined-up and realistically speaking, it’s not likely to take place before mid-January 2021 (if we’re assuming a minimum ten-week training camp/promotional period).

So what on earth is causing the delay? Has DAZN ran out of money or is there an issue with GGG himself?

Assuming GGG doesn’t compete until February/March of next year, he would have only engaged in two fights within the last 2½ years and roughly sixteen months would have transpired since his most recent bout.

And by that time, Gennadiy will only be weeks’ away from his 39th birthday.

Time is clearly running out!

On a side note to the above post, why does Team GGG seem so fascinated by Kamil Szeremeta?

• March 2019: The media reported that Szeremeta was one of the favourites to become Gennadiy’s first opponent under his new DAZN contract, but team GGGG had to go with Steve Rolls instead, because Kamil rejected the opportunity, due to his belief about not being ready by the stipulated June 2019 fight-date.

• August 2019: The media once again reported that Kamil Szeremeta’s name was mentioned as a likely foe for GGG’s October fight-date. Golovkin ended up facing Derevyanchenko instead.

• October 2019: Tom Loeffler admits they’re lobbying the IBF to instate Kamil Szeremeta as GGG’s mandatory challenger for his newly-acquired IBF title.

• November 2019: It was announced that GGG would be performing a mandatory defence of his IBF title against Kamil Szeremeta on the 29th February 2020. They failed to achieve that deadline.

• January 2020: It was announced that GGG would be performing a mandatory defence of his IBF title against Kamil Szeremeta on the 28th March. They failed to achieve that deadline.

• January 2020: It was announced that GGG would be performing a mandatory defence of his IBF title against Kamil Szeremeta sometime during April. They failed to achieve that deadline.

• March 2020: It was announced that GGG would be performing a mandatory defence of his IBF title against Kamil Szeremeta on the 6th June. They failed to achieve that deadline.

• September 2020: It was announced that GGG would be performing a mandatory defence of his IBF title against Kamil Szeremeta on the 21st November. They failed to achieve that deadline.

Gennadiy Golovkin even went so far as to admit that he was unwilling to consider facing Canelo for a third time without fighting Kamil Szeremeta beforehand!

Maybe GGG saw the criticism of the fight and has decided to make it more fair by getting older before he fights kammy

This fight is now scheduled for the 18th or 19th December.

On a side note, will GGG actually receive the purses associated to the alleged $100m sum that forms part of the contract he has with DAZN for this fight, assuming the streaming service don’t consider Szeremeta as a premium opponent?

And is Golovkin’s financial worth to DAZN significantly lower, now that Canelo has become a promotional and network free agent?

I can’t help thinking there could be fallout from Canelo leaving GBP and DAZN.