Gennadiy Golovkin has warned Oscar De La Hoya he will be taking his life in his own hands if he follows through on his plan to challenge the IBF middleweight champion next year.
The 47-year-old De La Hoya, who retired with a record of 39-6 (30) after losing to Manny Pacquiao 12 years ago, was recently interviewed about his proposed return to the ring, labelling a fight against Golovkin “easy”.
But Golovkin, who will defend his title against Kamil Szeremeta at Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on Friday night, has cautioned De La Hoya to be careful what he wished for.
“You know Oscar, you know how dirty his mouth is,” the 38-year-old Golovkin 40-1-1 (35) told AFP through a translator when asked if he took De La Hoya’s challenge seriously.
“Everything involving Gennady Golovkin for him is a nightmare. He can say whatever. But let me put it this way – if I got an opportunity to legally kill a person in the ring, I might seize it.”
The Szeremeta fight will be Golovkin’s first since scoring a tougher-than-expected 12-round unanimous decision victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko at New York’s Madison Square Garden in October last year.
“It was a long pause,” Golovkin admitted. “There was enough time to miss boxing and forget certain things. The training was good. I went through my standard training and it went well and I’m ready.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing believes some people are writing off Golovkin prematurely following the Derevyanchenko fight.
“It was only because the Derevyanchenko fight was close that people start questioning is Gennadiy at the latter end of his career, I think not,” Hearn said on a media conference call.
“The pleasure of working with Gennadiy Golovkin is he’ll never turn his back down on an opportunity or challenge. I think he is extremely motivated to go and fight anyone.”
Asked whether he would entertain the idea of pursuing lucrative fights against YouTube personalities such as Logan Paul, Golovkin said that did not factor into his immediate plans.
“Right now I’m in my professional boxing career and I don’t see the need for that myself. But in future if there is a demand and an interest, then why not?” he said.
The fight that most fans want to see next for Golovkin is a third bout with Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo Alvarez 53-1-2 (36), who he went 0-1-1 with in a pair of close decision fights.
“I don’t think about this because I’m tired of thinking about it,” he said. “It’s been over two years that we’ve been throwing this around. It’s not my fault that this fight has not taken place.
“Currently, it’s too early to say, but there is a possibility this fight might never happen.”
Hearn is still keen to make the trilogy between Golovkin and Alvarez.
“The ultimate challenge that he wants to accept next is Canelo Alvarez but he’s just focused on Szeremeta,” he said.
“I believe his resume stands as the best middleweight in the world but he will fight [Jermall] Charlo, he will fight [Jaime] Munguia and he will fight [Demetrius] Andrade if the Canelo Alvarez fight doesn’t present itself.”
