Irish Middleweight Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan is close to finalising a deal to fight undefeated Kazakh boxer Gennady Golovkin at the StubHub Center in Los Angeles, California, next month.
The news was first reported by Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times and a source close to Spike told SportsJOE that a date of May 5 at the StubHub had been set for the fight.
The @GGGBoxing news moving fast today. Developments happening to place title defense vs. @spike_osullivan on regular @HBO, non-PPV, at @StubHubCenter in progress.
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) April 9, 2018
O’Sullivan will still have to agree to terms with Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler as ‘GGG’ looks for a new opponent in the wake of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s withdrawal from their highly anticipated rematch.
Canelo withdrew from the bout after he had tested positive for clenbuterol on February 17 and 21. He claimed that the positive test was attributed to tainted meat he had eaten in Mexico.
The rematch was initially scheduled for May 5 in Las Vegas, however, the rescheduled fight now looks like it will take place at the Stub Hub Center in Los Angeles.
Golovkin said that he is ready to fight anyone last weekend while Loeffler confirmed that O’Sullivan was in consideration for next month’s bout.
“As soon we have everything sorted out, hopefully we’ll have announcement in the next couple of days,” Loeffler said about Golovkin’s next opponent.
“It’s up to the Commission as far as the suspension. Canelo doesn’t really have a choice. Canelo did the right thing in pulling out. Right now, he’s training. He wants to fight May 5. He wants to stay active, and then we’ll work out the details for the rematch with him. There have been a lot of opponents under consideration, and [he’s] one of them,” Loeffler said about O’Sullivan.
“There’s probably a list of five different guys. We’re just going through, making sure. We’ve got to look for the right guy. Obviously, it’s short notice now.
“We must fight in a month, so we have to have all the moving parts working together. It won’t be a southpaw that I can tell you. This is his second week of sparring. He’s getting right-handed sparring, so he’s not going to fight a southpaw.”
