Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs Szeremeta: our prediction

On December 18, Gennady Golovkin will return to the ring after more than a year, to defend his IBO and IBF middleweight titles against the official IBF challenger Kamil Szeremeta, but whenever Gennady Golovkin’s name is mentioned, boxing fans continue to associate it with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and their potential third fight.

Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) is back and ready to fight next December 18 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood to defend the IBO and IBF middleweight titles against the undefeated Kamil Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs). Golovkin has been away from the boxing ring for more than 1 year when, on October 5, 2018, he defeated Sergiy Derevyanchenko by unanimous decision winning the vacant IBF and IBO middleweight titles at the Madison Square Garden in New York. After 14 months, GGG is ready to show that, despite he is already 38-year-old, he still the boogeyman of the division. In the pre-fight interview, GGG stated that he had enough time to relax and to forget “certain things”. He continued saying that he is in perfect shape and managed to train as usual in view of the fight against Szeremeta.

However, those “certain things” have not been forgotten by the boxing enthusiasts who are still hoping for the third chapter of the Canelo Alvarez vs GGG saga. Although there have been rumors for a potential third fight between the two super-champions, Golovkin is pessimistic and he has publicly revealed that this fight may not happen and not because of him. Ironically, the Mexican star will fight the day after GGG. On Saturday, December 19, Canelo Alvarez will attempt an assault on the WBA and WBC super-middleweight belts against Callum Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) on the ring of the Alamodome in San Antonio. After their respective challenges, many fans continue to expect or wonder whether or not the third bout will happen in 2021.

Going back to Golokvin vs Szeremeta, here we go with our prediction. We honestly feel that GGG should not have big problems in putting asleep the Polish boxer. Despite being undefeated and with more than 20 fights on his back, Szeremeta has never faced a world-class boxer and his skills have never particularly impressed during his career. Kamil Szeremeta loves to take control of the center of the ring and commence grinding the opponents bringing home points to win, in most of the cases, by unanimous decision. To some extent, Szeremeta knows how to get his work done with average boxers. However, on December 19, there will be GGG on the ring against him and we all know that Golovkin is one of the most aggressive and brutal punchers in the entire current boxing landscape.

On the contrary, the major concern about GGG is that one additional year of age. Already against Derevyanchenko, GGG could not achieve an easy early stop despite the Ukrainian boxer was severely compromised managing to win thanks to scorecards (114 to 113 and twice 115 to 112, all in favor of GGG). However, considering the gap between Golokvin and Szeremeta we predict and we are still confident that GGG will retain his belts by TKO/KO in-between the 4th and 7th rounds.