Home Boxing News Spike O’Sullivan out of running to face Gennady Golovkin on May 5

Spike O’Sullivan out of running to face Gennady Golovkin on May 5

Spike O’Sullivan

Ireland’s Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan 27-2 (19) has withdrawn his name from the running of potential opponents for unified middleweight champion Gennday Golovkin 37-0-1 (33) on May 5, citing the short time left to conduct a full training camp.

The Kazakh wrecking machine was left without a dance partner when Mexico’s Canelo Alvarez withdrew from their scheduled rematch after twice failing drug tests in February for the banned substance clenbuterol.

Speaking to ESPN.com, Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez said: “Spike’s not going to take the fight. He really wanted to do the fight, but the short amount of time, the short amount of money, it just doesn’t work at this time.

“He wants a big fight, but he doesn’t want to take a fight at the last minute. He wants to win and he took his time to really think about it, and we talked about it with him and with our [promotional] partner Ken Casey from Murphy’s Boxing.

“We have a responsibility to our fighter. We respect him. If he goes into a big fight like this, the biggest fight of his career, he doesn’t want to go into the fight as the opponent on three weeks’ notice.

“Getting ready for an ESPN card is very different than going in with one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world on three weeks’ notice.”

Other name in the running to fight Golovkin in the past couple of weeks have included Demetrius Andrade, WBO titleholder Billy Joe Saunders and Vanes Martirosyan. The Golovkin camp has shown no interest in facing Andrade, Saunders has been sidelined with a hand injury and won’t be ready to fight until June, while Martirosyan has been inactive for the past two years.

The Golovkin-Alvarez fight was supposed to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 5, the same place that the two fought to a draw last September in a result that split viewers.

Alvarez, a superstar in his home country of Mexico, has blamed contaminated beef for his positive drug tests.