It is quite a comedown from the planned rematch vs Alvarez, but Golovkin needs to be active, sponsors wanted a fight for this weekend and few were willing to face the fearsome Golovkin on three weeks notice.
Hence the entrance of Vanes Martirosyan, who although being a contender for years at 154 pounds has never fought at 160 pounds, hasn't fought in almost two years, won a fight in two and a half years or defeated an elite opponent (he does hold wins over Kassim Ouma, Willie Nelson, and Ishe Smith, all fighters of lower end of the top ten level), but was willing to fight under the exacting conditions that this fight will be under.
Golovkin will only be defending his WBA and WBC titles as the IBF and rightfully so does not recognize Martirosyan as a deserving contender, but did give Golovkin an exception for this fight provided GGG defends next against Sergey Dereyvanchenko.
We'll see if that happens as I doubt Golovkin wants to vacate a title with his goal being to hold all four belts, but if the Canelo rematch comes up in September, he may have to choose between belts and dollars.
There also is the chance that Canelo may want a prep fight after being off a year (by that time) and Golovkin could fight Dereyvanchenko in the fall, so I'd call that 50/50.
ESPN2 has a nice main event in touted prospect and heavy Twitter user Ryan Garcia as the main event in a prep card that was planned to be an infomercial for the planned Golovkin-Alvarez rematch against former world title challenger Jayson Velez.
Velez, who is a gatekeeper at 126 and 130 despite his draw with then-IBF champion Evgeny Gradovich and will be the sternest test yet for the talented Garcia.
AWE jumps in with their purchase of an entire card from the UK and I've been waiting for a while to see AWE's satellite coverage with cards that should have TV in the States, but if anyone was interested in buying them, AWE couldn't afford them!
The main event is the rematch between former world cruiserweight and WBA heavyweight champion David Haye against former WBC cruiserweight titleholder Tony Bellew in a rematch of their war from 14 months ago.
Bellew stopped Haye in the eleventh round, but Haye injured his Achilles tendon in the sixth round when he slipped on some water after winning each of the first five rounds.
Bellew won every round thereafter before the stoppage and Haye was forced to exchange because he couldn't move, so the fight was a really exciting fight.
The co-main event will fill the IBF bantamweight title vacated when Ryan Burnett had to choose between the WBA and IBF belts and will put undefeated and untested Emmanuel Rodriguez against former IBF champ Paul Butler, who held this belt but vacated before defending it in order to drop down to junior bantam.
Butler's only loss is to WBO champ Zolani Tete, so a Butler win could lead to a rematch to unify two belts.
Rodriguez is said to be quite talented so this could be interesting.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 75-61.
WBA/WBC Middleweight titles. 12 Rds
Gennady Golovkin vs Vanes Martirosyan
R.L: Golovkin KO 6
TRS: Golovkin KO 4
Junior Lightweights. 10 Rds
Ryan Garcia vs Jayson Velez
R.L: Garcia KO 5
TRS: Garcia Unanimous Decision
Heavyweights. 12 Rds
Tony Bellew vs David Haye
R.L: Bellew Unanimous Decision
TRS: Haye Unanimous Decision
Vacant IBF Bantamweight Title.12 Rds
Paul Butler vs Emmanuel Rodriguez
Both: Rodriguez Unanimous Decision
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