Opponent possibilities for Gennady Golovkin should he finalize a deal with DAZN
As previously reported by 3kingsboxing.com, former unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is close to signing a multi-fight deal with DAZN. The deal includes a guarantee of three fights out of a possible six. Additionally, he will secure equity with the company as well as fight dates for his promotional company.
He is reportedly set to earn 10 million in his first fight on the network against an opponent yet to be determined. This leads us to discuss potential opponents for his DAZN debut!
Tuereano Johnson (20-2-1, 14KO)
Johnson is a very respectable fighter who has a fan friendly style. While he’s is solid in terms of skill, he has been knocked out each time he stepped up the competition (Curtis Stevens and Sergey Derevyanchenko).
Once upon a time, the two were slated to meet in 2016 and Johnson exuded a tremendous amount of confidence. However, an injury would sideline the fighter from the Bahamas and he would not return until March 2017. Golovkin instead fought and defeated Dominic Wade.
On February 9, Johnson recorded a draw against journeyman Fernando Castaneda on the under-card of Alberto Machado vs Andrew Cancio. This was a terrible performance that would have fans heavily favoring Golovkin in this match-up.
Luis Arias (18-1-1 9 KOs)
Arias is a former highly-touted prospect who hasn’t quite lived up to his potential. Coming off two back-to-back disappointing performances, he finds himself in the midst of a career crossroads.
While he’s only 28 years-old, he’s yet to show the ability to compete with the upper echelon fighters in his division. A fight with Daniel Jacobs in which Arias ensured victory ended up a twelve round, one-sided affair in favor of Jacobs. Furthermore, a fight in which he was expected to win against Gabriel Rosado ended in a controversial draw where the majority of viewers felt Rosado won.
On paper, this may be the easier of the opponents mentioned in this article for the Kazakh fighter. While Arias has the potential along with decent boxing ability, he cannot seem to produce under the brightest lights. Additionally, he seems to be a small middleweight given his frame and may want to consider moving down in weight.
Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (29-3, 20KO)
O’Sullivan is scheduled to face junior middleweight journeyman Khiary Gray in March. However, he is known to accept bouts one after another, evidenced by his three fights in 2018. Therefore, a May or June showdown with Golovkin would be something he could accept.
“Spike” is a big middleweight that applies relentless pressure behind a big punch. In addition, he has a brash personality which would help the promotion of the fight. His biggest win was a seventh round deconstruction of respected prospect Antoine Douglas in 2017.
However, similar to Arias, he too folds under the big lights. He has losses to Billy Joe Saunders and Chris Eubank Jr, however, the biggest knock on him would be his first round meltdown against David Lemieux in September 2018. Fans were not clamoring for this fight to happen, although, they did expect a war given the styles. The fight was anything but that and O’Sullivan lost some credibility in terms of his resilience because of the result.
This match-up on paper would seem like it could be a nice dust-up stylistically. Unfortunately, when stepping up in competition, you are only as good as your last big fight. Given this, fans would expect Golovkin to stop O’Sullivan in the same manner Lemieux was able to.
Fans should understand the likelihood of Golovkin’s first bout being a tune-up. Therefore, while these names are not ideal, their ties to DAZN and/or Golden Boy would make them strong possibilities!
By: Jerrell Fletcher
