Team Golovkin: N'dam Wants No Part of Gennady Bout

Jan 22, 2012 • 2:27 AM ET

By Alexander Pavlov

Oleg Hermann, the manager of WBA "regular" middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan, has denied rumors that interim-champion Hassan N'Dam N'jikam is pushing for his mandatory fight. The WBA's middleweight ranks continue to hold three champions, with none of the three beltholders being able to reach an agreement to fight.

"For a long time we've tried to negotiate with Hassan, and made repeated attempts to [make the fight] with him, but each time [the negotiations fell through] for various reasons. In the end, the promoter for N'Dam officially abandoned the fight during the WBA's convention in Donetsk. Now we plan to fight with Felix Sturm, since the WBA ruled that Felix's next defense should be against Gennady. Next week we'll begin negotiations with Sturm's team, and I think we have a good chance of holding the fight in Germany on April 13. However, he might try to find the smallest loophole to avoid a fight with Gennady," Hermann said.