By Steve Kim

If Gennady Golovkin should prove successful in unifying the middleweight titles with David Lemieux this weekend, and does solid pay-per-view numbers - don't expect him to fight just twice a year as many other marquee fighters do nowadays.

Golovkin has made it clear to his handlers that he wants to stay as active as possible. But the reality is that once you hit a certain level - such as being involved in pay-per-view events - and the stakes get higher - you fight less. Since the beginning of 2013, 'GGG' has fought nine times.

The Managing Director of K2 Promotions, Tom Loeffler explained to Boxingscene.com:

"Whenever there's a pay-per-view promotion and a match-up like that, there's a longer lead time into something like that. We're talking about the winner of (Miguel) Cotto and 'Canelo' (Saul Alvarez), if Gennady successful on October 17th. That would certainly have a longer lead time. So it just depends on the promotion, how much of a lead-time do we need for it?

"But he always wants to fight four times a year, realistically when he gets on a certain level it'll probably be three times a year. Still, compared to most other champions three times a year on a consistent basis is still much more active than 90-percent of the other champions out there."

Loeffer says that for Golovkin, who has a career mark of 33-0 (30 KO's) not to fight at least three times in a year "would really have to be something where something went wrong."

Last year, Golovkin had to cancel a fight against Andy Lee because of the sudden and unexpected death of his father. Later on in 2014 they were delayed as they waited around for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to sign on the dotted line - something he never got around to doing.

"And that was still three times in a year," said Loeffler of last years campaign that saw Golovkin defeat the trio of Osumanu Adama, Daniel Geale and Marco Antonio Rubio in 2014.

"So I'd say even with the bigger fights, the bigger promotions, I don't see (Gennady) fighting less than three times in a year."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com