By Jake Donovan

While the boxing world awaits the eventual finalization and announcement on World Middleweight champion Miguel Cotto's pending superfight with Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, another mouthwatering divisional clash has been made official. 

Camps for Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux both confirmed on Saturday that a deal has been reached for reigning titlists to meet in a unification bout. The perceived slugfest will take place October 17 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

"My goal is all of the belts in the middleweight division," Golovkin said, repeating his past stance of wanting unification bouts and big fights from here on out. "It’s important to me to own all of the belts."

The card will air live on HBO Pay-Per-View, with K2 Promotions (Golovkin) and Golden Boy Promotions (Alvarez) each presenting separate bouts on the undercard. One of the bouts will include World flyweight champion Roman 'Chocalito' Gonzalez. 

Both fighters will be making their debut as a PPV headliner, though the belief is that the matchup of knockout artists will translate well at the box office. 

"We try to put on the best shows," said Tom Loeffler, managing director of K2 Promotions. "Last year we had Nonito Donaire and Nicholas Walters in the co-feature (of Golovkin's 2nd round knockout win over Marco Antonio Rubio at StubHub Center, with both bouts airing live on HBO). Gennady had the biggest selling fight at StubHub last year and his rating continue to reflect that. 

"(The fans) have a better sense of when you have an exciting fighter in the ring, and they make the choice to tune in."

Golovkin (33-0, 30KOs)—who captured a Silver medal for his native Kazakhstan in the 2004 Athens Olympics—is coming off of a 6th round knockout of Willie Monroe this past May. The bout played to a sold-out crowd at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., marking his second consecutive fight in front of a capacity crowd in the Southern California area. 

The showdown with Lemieux will mark Golovkin's first true unification bout, excluding his aforementioned win over Rubio, in which he netted the interim WBC middleweight title. The significance of the belt being at stake was that it guaranteed him a future fight with Cotto. 

Such a bout threatened to not happen—at least not anytime soon—but assurances were made for Golovkin to eventually land such a fight. Prior to signing with Lemieux, the long-reigning titlist—who has made 14 successful defenses of at least one belt, all coming as part of a current 20-fight knockout streak—was in line to face the winner of Cotto and Alvarez, once their bout finally happens of course.

That opportunity is now very much at risk as he faces arguably his most dangerous test to date. 

Lemieux (34-2, 31KOs) has won nine straight since overcoming a disastrous 2011 campaign in which he suffered back-to-back losses. The fierce puncher from Montreal was dealt his first loss in a major upset, as he was stopped in seven rounds by Rubio in their April '11 ESPN2-televised headliner. Eight months later came another shocker, as former 154 lb. titlist Joachime Alcine resurrected his career at Lemieux's expense in scoring a majority decision win. 

It certainly knocked the new penny shine off of his career, but Lemieux has managed to punch his way back towards the top of the middleweight division. 

The 26-year old captured his first major title in his most recent bout, flooring Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam four times but still dealt with a surprisingly stiff challenge in their vacant title fight in June. Lemieux claimed a unanimous decsion in one of the best fights of 2015 to date, earning the vacant IBF title he will now put on the line versus Golovkin.

Originally, Lemieux's handlers—Golden Boy founder Oscar de la Hoya and manager Camille Estephan—attempted to push back such a fight until 2016, hoping to further develop Lemieux's brand while also seeking to get his mandatory defense out of the way.

However, the IBF was still in the process of finalizing an eliminator to name such a challenger, paving the way for the first true middleweight unification bout since Daniel Geale's decision win over Felix Sturm on the road in Germany in Sept. '12. 

"The fight is on!" Lemieux exclaimed through his social media account once formally informed of the news. "[T]his is exciting!!! Let's war!"

The bout will serve as Lemieux's second trip to New York in his past three fights. The Montreal-bred middleweight headlined a show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn last December, stopping Gabriel Rosado in the 10th and final round of a night that also marked his HBO debut. 

Golovkin fights for the fifth time in New York state, and for the fourth time on MSG property. His U.S.—and HBO—debut came in Sept. '12 at Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York, knocking out Grzegorz Proksa in five rounds. His MSG debut came in his very next fight, stopping Rosado in the 7th round of their Jan. '13 clash at MSG Theatre. Golovkin returned to the venue later that November, knocking out Curtis Stevens in eight rounds to cap a Fighter of the Year-worthy campaign that included four title fight knockout wins.

His most recent Garden party came last July, playing the main room in a 3rd round blitzing of Geale in one of the most vicious knockouts of 2014. 

Along with the reward of collecting two belts by night's end, the Golovkin-Lemieux winner will have the luxury of sitting back and awaiting the outcome of Cotto-Alvarez, which is due to take place in November. Depending on the date (November 7 and November 21 are the two being discussed), the World middleweight championship will land in either Las Vegas or New York. 

The winners will meet in what will easily serve as the biggest fight of 2016. For now, this latest news adds to already exciting times for the middleweight division. 

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox