Gennady Golovkin's next fight will come in October or November, and today there are rumblings that the opponent has been found. With IBF titleholder Sam Soliman fighting Jermain Taylor, WBC/RING titleholder Miguel Cotto apparently not interested, and WBO titlist Peter Quillin with Al Haymon, the fight with Golovkin had to go to someone.
That someone may be Marco Antonio Rubio, the veteran middleweight fringe contender and WBC favorite. Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KO) said on Twitter that since Cotto doesn't want to face him (Rubio, who stepped aside as WBC mandatory to allow Cotto-Martinez to happen), he and his team had reached a deal to face Golovkin on October 18.
A source at TheSweetScience.com says it's a done deal, though K2 promoter Tom Loeffler, who handles Golovkin, says it's not official yet, though Rubio has been approved by HBO.
Rubio, 34, has had a few notable fights over the last five years. In 2009, he challenged then-middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik, and was completely dominated over nine rounds before retiring from the fight. In 2012, he lost a more competitive fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr on HBO. His shining moment came in April 2011, though, when he knocked off unbeaten puncher David Lemieux, seen then as a total destroyer. Rubio weathered the early storm and went on to stop Lemieux in seven rounds.
We know Rubio can take a shot. He's been stopped three times -- once against Pavlik; once early in his career in 2001 against Saul Roman, who also went on to be a decent fighter; and a KO-1 in 2004 against Kofi Jantuah. But does durability alone make him an interesting Golovkin opponent? Not really. He'll be a big underdog, and should be. Rubio has mostly built his record beating up on mediocre (at best) fighters. Rubio can fight, and isn't a complete mirage or anything like that, but he's not on the top level, and really represents more a sideways step for Golovkin than anything.