Gennady Golovkin’s next fight will have to wait longer as the Kazakh champion is reportedly hit by a right calf injury. He was set to defend his middleweight world title versus Kamil Szeremeta, but the injury has prompted his team to file an extension to the IBF, asking the federation to postpone the bout in May or June.
According to Steve Kim of ESPN, the fight, which had already been delayed multiple times even before GGG’s injury, was set to be staged not earlier than April per Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn. The card was originally planned to kick off on Feb. 29 before it was reset for March 28 due to “various reasons”. And with the unforeseen situation of Triple G, the insecurity of when the fight night will occur simply increased.
Golovkin will have to start from scratch preparing conditioning-wise for the delayed Szeremeta bout.
This after he decided to go on separate ways with Victor Conte and his physical conditioning program at the SNAC facilities in San Carlos, California.
"We did our best to help Gennady, but he was simply not able to do what we asked him to do," Conte said per Kim on Tuesday. "In short, I asked him to leave our facility because he did not comply with what we had agreed upon before camp started. However, I do wish him good luck in the future."
The report from ESPN said further that the demand for the fight’s extension is currently being considered as confirmed by a DAZN spokesperson. ESPN then tried to reach GGG Promotions for comment but to no avail.
Triple G, 37, holds an exceptional professional record of 40 victories in 42 fights, dented only by a draw and a loss in a tight contest versus Canelo Alvarez. He last fought on Oct.5 at the Madison Square Garden in New York where he defeated Sergiy Derevyancheko by virtue of a unanimous decision.
The Polish Szeremeta, meanwhile, is undefeated in 21 fights but not really known as a destructive puncher with only five knockouts to boast of.
