Pirog vs Golovkin: Fight Canceled Due to Pirog Back Injury, Golovkin to Keep HBO Date

The August 25 fight between Dmitry Pirog and Gennady Golovkin has been canceled due to a back injury suffered by Pirog that will keep him out between three and four months, but Golovkin will reportedly keep the HBO date and the hunt is on for a replacement opponent.

Golovkin (23-0, 20 KO) holds the WBA regular middleweight title, and will be fighting in the United States for the first time. It will also be his HBO debut. The exciting 30-year-old native of Kazakhstan could potentially face any number of opponents, and the idea of being HBO approved is probably less of an issue here than in most cases.

Normally, neither Pirog nor Golovkin would get looks for HBO main events, but the company is invested in the middleweight division and needs to get more of the quality fighters at 160 some exposure. This is a step toward that, and was meant to give two solid contenders a look at one time.

Frankly, I doubt there are many who will be surprised by this news, as the fight kind of seemed too good to be true for a number of reasons. And I wouldn't count it as a surprise if this entire fight card winds up canceled, since there's no venue for anything yet and we're talking about a date that's less than two months away.