American promoter Tom Leffler (GGG Promotions, 360 Promotions), who works for the IBF and IBO world middleweight champion Gennady GGG Golovkin (41-1-1, 34 KOs) from Kazakhstan, gave an interview for an American blog, reports bbabo.net.
Leffler spoke about Golovkin's upcoming meeting on April 9 with WBA "super champion" Japanese Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs). He also commented on the upcoming trilogy fight between Golovkin and the undisputed middleweight champion (up to 76.2 kilograms) Mexican Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs), which is tentatively scheduled for September this year.
- There's a lot of news about GGG right now. First, he will have a fight against Murata on April 9, and then, it seems, a third fight against Canelo.
- Yes, the journey for GGG continues. He is a road warrior. He fought all over the world. He is a global star. This is a unification fight against another champion. We are looking forward to this. If all goes well in Japan, it looks like there will be a third fight with Canelo in September. True, Canelo needs to beat Bivol. We'll see. Now GGG is 100 percent focused on Murata.
- Is GGG ready to go up to 76.2 kilos? Does he have any hesitation?
- As I told many people in the twitter wars, he was always ready to go up to 76.2 kilograms for a proper fight. Carl Froch in the stadium, Canelo at 76.2 kilos… So if it makes sense for him to get up, then there is no problem. It’s just that earlier at 72.6 kilograms he had more interesting fights than at 76.2.
- Many underestimate Murata, but he is a real fighter.
- He is quite a skilled fighter. He's gotten a lot better since losing to Brant and he's at the peak of his career. Golovkin will turn 40 in April but I believe he still has a lot of knockouts inside him, a lot of fights. He's a big puncher and I really want GGG to have a solid career year.
Canelo said he wants to close the chapter with a trilogy. It looks like he wants to win by knockout. It's obviously GGG style, but do you think Golovkin has the same nastiness?
“I think Canelo kind of waited until he figured out it was safe to go back to the Golovkin story. I already said that he will be 40 this year. Canelo looks at it this way: "maybe I can win the fight without the help of judges, unlike the first two fights." Let's see what happens. I don't want to talk too much about what might happen in the future. We are 100 percent focused on Murata, and look - if GGG is unified world middleweight champion again, then he will have a great streak. Every year he has been world champion since 2010-2011, something like that.
- Canelo - Bivol is a tough fight. How do you see this fight going?
- I respect Bivol, but I think that Canelo is at its peak right now. He'll be too fast, too agile, hard to hit. I think speed will lead him to victory.
Recall that earlier Golovkin filed a lawsuit against the promotional company Golden Boy Promotions, which at one time represented the interests of Canelo. Details are given at this link.
bbabo.Net