Gennady Golovkin’s future as the IBF middleweight champion will be determined soon.
The governing body recently ordered Golovkin to defend his title against mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko after Golovkin defeated Vanes Martirosyan on May 5. This came after Golovkin was allowed to keep his title after a planned rematch against Canelo Alvarez fell through and Derevyanchenko and his promoter Lou DiBella publicly called for the IBF to order Golovkin to fulfill his mandatory challenge.
The camps for both Golovkin and Derevyanchenko and the IBF held a four-and-a-half hour meeting on May 22 to discuss the possibility of Golovkin keeping his title and fighting Alvarez next, putting the mandatory challenger’s world title shot on hold until the end of 2018 at the earliest.
IBF President Daryl Peoples said an announcement on the matter will come within 10 days of the May 22 meeting. Derevyanchenko won the right to challenge for the IBF title after defeating Tureano Johnson in a title eliminator last year.
In the meantime, Golovkin will continue to negotiate with Alvarez and Golden Bly Promotions on having their highly-anticipated rematch take place on September 15. Alvarez is currently in the middle of a six-month suspension handed to him by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for testing positive twice for clenbuterol back in February.
Golovkin, who also holds the WBA "super" and WBC titles, has said in the past that his goal is to win all the major middleweight titles and the WBO title currently held by Billy Joe Saunders is the only title left for Golovkin to collect to accomplish his goal. Golovkin tied the record for most consecutive middleweight world title defenses set by Bernard Hopkins when Golovkin knocked out Martirosyan on May 5.
