When the news broke that Dmitry Pirog would be unable to fight Gennady Golovkin on an Aug. 25 edition of HBO’s Boxing After Dark, hardcore boxing fans felt it was a devastating blow as that bout guaranteed action and intrigue.
Fans can hold out hope that Golovkin will indeed be facing a step-up in competition as Matchroom Sport’s Eddie Hearn has informed TQBR that they are in discussions to make a fight between Golovkin and Grzegorz Proksa, whose promotional rights Matchroom owns. Proksa is coming off an 8th round technical knockout victory over Kerry Hope which took place just last weekend, avenging a questionable majority decision loss that took place in March, Proksa’s only blemish so far in 29 professional contests.
Proksa suffered a hand injury in the rematch with Hope and is waiting results from a scan, but his team is very optimistic that the fight will be made. Proksa would be fighting less than two full months removed from his last fight, but Proksa hardly struggled in the return fight with Hope, obviously taking it much more seriously than he did the first time around.
The card also features a junior middleweight fight between former beltholder Sergiy Dzinziruk and unbeaten Jonathan Gonzalez and is slated to take place at the Edgewater Casino Resort in Laughlin, Nev., about an hour and a half from the Strip in Las Vegas.
While Proksa doesn’t bring any sanctioning body’s title to the table, he brings a come forward style that may make for an even better fight stylistically than the Pirog fight would have. Proksa easily represents better opposition than Golovkin has seen in the ring so far and the winner would be a legimitate threat at 160 pounds on the elite level.
Hearn has advised TQBR that further news will be available later this week.
Mark Ortega can be reached via e-mail at ortegaliitr@gmail.com and followed via Twitter at www.twitter.com/MarkEOrtega. Mark also contributes to renowned boxing publications RING Magazine and Boxing Monthly, and is a member of the Boxing Writer’s Association of America and RING Ratings Advisory Panel.
