By Steve Kim

It was announced by Tom Loeffler, the managing director of K2 Promotions, that WBA/IBO middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin, will face Willie Monroe on May 16th in a bout that will be televised by HBO and be held at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

With the pickings being slim at middleweight other names like Tureano Johnson and Jorge Heiland were being contemplated.

"Monroe is the more marketable fighter, I think he's been on ESPN four times in the last year. He won the 'Boxcino' tournament and he's a slick southpaw and I think it'll be a contrasting style for Gennady. A lot of people say they want to see Gennady fight a slick boxer, well, Gennady's very aggressive and Willie is a slick boxer. So that's why I think you'll see an interesting contrast of styles," said Loeffler to BoxingScene.com.

As for going to the refurbished Forum, which got back into the boxing business last May(with a promotion featuring Juan Manuel Marquez and Mike Alvarado), Loeffler explained that - "based on the reception we got at the StubHub Center that we definitely needed to go to a bigger venue and a fight like this, you got an East Coast slick boxer against a Mexican-style fighter, so I think it'll be a great match-up at the Forum."

Last October, Golovkin played to an overflow crowd of over 9,000 in Carson in what was his Southern California debut.

"Gennady just moved his family to Los Angeles so he's an official resident and it made sense to build on that momentum we built up from the (Marco Antonio) Rubio fight at the StubHub Center,"said Loeffler, who stated that tickets - which go on sale next Tuesday - will be priced between $30 to $300. "We want to have as many people in the arena as possible."

There is the distinct possibility that flyweight powerhouse, Roman Gonzalez could be opening up the HBO telecast. Loeffler didn't confirm, but he didn't exactly deny it, either.

"We're working on a very strong co-feature to compliment Gennady on the main event just like we did at the StubHub Center," said Loeffler. "We had Nonito Donaire against Nicholas Walters, so our goal is to put on the best product on television not only with Gennady but also the entire show. We haven't finalized the co-feature, yet, but we're working on putting on the best available one for the fans."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.