By Mike Coppinger
The man regarded by many as the most avoided man in boxing makes his second appearance on HBO Saturday against Gabe Rosado. His last time out, Gennady Golovkin flattened Grzegorz Proksa in 5, after his scheduled fight with Dmitry Pirog was cancelled when the latter pulled out with a back injury.
In order for Golovkin (24-0, 21 KOs) to obtain the big fights, he has stated he could fight anywhere from junior middleweight to super middleweight. Currently, he resides in the middleweight division, but he would move up or down in weight for the right fight. It's that versatility that makes the fighter that much more attractive to HBO, who is working towards an exclusive deal with Golovkin.
"[His weight flexibility] is authentic," said Kery Davis, HBO Sports Senior VP of Programming. "Even in the discussions for this fight, we talked about fights that ranged from all the way down at 154 pounds to 168.There were 168 pounders who were on the docket as potential fights for this card. Gabe Rosado got the fight because we thought he was the best fit for this particular show, but we were looking at 168 pounders as well during this process.
"Fighting between 154 and 168 pounds, there's a lot of fights. There are a lot of big fights that can happen down the road. Certainly a fight with Sergio Martinez would be attractive. Going up to 68, a fight with Andre Ward would be attractive. Those are the kind of fights that we can talk about with a guy like Gennady because of his versatility and his willingness to fight between those weight classes."
Mike Coppinger is a contributor to USA TODAY's boxing coverage. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger
