Matt Korobov Ready To Face Gennady Golovkin on April 23

By Ryan Burton

BoxingScene.com has been advised by Cameron Dunkin that his fighter Matt Korobov (25-1) is ready to step in the ring against WBA/IBF//IBO/WBC interim middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (34-0) on April 23rd. The fight will likely take place at The Forum in Los Angeles or in Texas.

"I got a call yesterday asking if we were interested and I spoke to Matt about it and he said yes. We are very interested. He just fought Saturday but he is already back in the gym," Dunkin told BoxingScene.com.

Korobov beat Josue Ovando by unanimous decision in Dallas in a bout televised by Unimas. The former Russian amateur standout had been out of the ring 13 months after suffering his first career loss to then champion Andy Lee in an HBO televised fight. Korobov was winning the fight comfortably and appeared to be on his way to being crowned world champion before getting caught and stopped in the sixth round.

Korobov was a highly decorated amateur who won some of the most prestigious tournaments in the unpaid ranks. He has amateur wins over Daniel Jacobs, Oleksandr Usyk, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Alfonso Blanco, Jarrod Fletcher, Darren Sutherland, Ismail Syllakh and several others.

The two fighters have some history, with Golovkin beating Korobov in the 2003 world amateur championships in Bangkok.

Dunkin advised that there is no deal in place at the moment but that his fighter is very interested in hitting the hard hitter from Kazakhstan. Golovkin went 3-0 in 2015 while unifying his titles in October with his stoppage win over David Lemieux at New York's Madison Square Garden. 

Golovkin's main target for his April fight was WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders who won the title by defeating Andy Lee in December. Saunders wasn't happy with the money being offered and also admitted he needed a little more time before being ready for GGG and decided to go another direction.

The 33-year-old Golovkin's fall back plan was to face his IBF mandatory challenger Tureano Johnson but those plans went down the drain when it was announced that that he will be out for an undisclosed amount of time with a shoulder injury.

Those two turn of events have greatly limited Golovkin's options. 

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