It hasn’t even been a week since middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin stopped welterweight-turned-middleweight challenger Kell Brook in the fifth round. Nevertheless, new challenges and new fighters await to confront both boxers.
The World Boxing Association (WBA) announced on the news section of their webpage that the organization is ordering Golovkin (36-0 33KO’s) to defend it’s middleweight title against Brooklyn-based Daniel Jacobs.
Jacobs (32-1 29KO’s) is the WBA regular middleweight champion while the native Kazakh Golovkin is the reigning WBA super champion.
From the statement on the WBA website before the Golovkin-Brook fight, Jacobs said:
“I want to prove to the world that I’m the best middleweight. If GGG gets the victory over Kell Brook, that’s who we want.”
Jacobs has held his title since August 9, 2014 when he TKO’d Australian Jerrod Fletcher in the fifth round at the Barclays Center in New York.
Golovkin, called by many as GGG, has repeatedly professed desire to unify all the belts in the division, and initially won the interim belt back in 2010 and has knocked out every single opponent he has faced in eight years.
The last belt which escapes Golovkin at the moment is the WBO middleweight title, currently controlled by Brit Billy Joe Saunders.
Saunders has yet to defend his title since out-boxing Irish fighter Andy Lee last year, and is rumored to be defending it at the much simultaneously delayed and anticipated rematch between heavyweights Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko on October 29th in the Manchester Arena.
Meanwhile Brook, who possesses, and was not defending the IBF welterweight championship, potentially faces a challenger in number one rated contender Errol Spence Jr.
Spence, coming off an electrifying knockout victory versus Leonard Bundu in New York, is fast on the trail of championship gold himself, being undefeated in twenty-one contests stopping eighteen challengers.
(Highlights of Spence vs Bundu via PBC YouTube)
Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. is now the number on rated contender for Brook’s IBF welterweight belt.
While it is almost certain for a Golovkin-Jacobs to take place in the next few months given a successful round of negotiations between the two camps, Spence-Brook is a bit murkier.
Brook in his valiant but unsuccessful bout with GGG suffered a broken left orbital bone, essentially a broken eye-socket.
Brook was reported to undergo surgery to repair the damage later on in the week, so will be sidelined for some time.
While not necessarily adding insult to injury, what is added is the doubt of Brook to remain in the welterweight division.
With many noting that Brook often sheds large amounts weight to compete at the welterweight (147lbs) limit, including many provocative statements by Brook and promoter Eddie Hearn about the desire to move up in weight class he told IFL TV:
“Kell will move to light-middleweight in 2017.”
No matter what happens next, both Golovkin and Brook have a number of options in play for their respective next appearances in the squared circle.
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