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With Gennady Golovkin unfortunately out of his April 26 HBO date due to the recent passing of his father, HBO still wants a fight on that date, and Lou DiBella is proposing a middleweight clash between Andy Lee -- who may have been Golovkin's next foe -- and Matthew Macklin.
Macklin (30-5, 21 KO) was knocked out in three rounds by Golovkin last year, but did come back on HBO in December to beat Lamar Russ over 10 rounds. Lee (31-2, 22 KO) is working on a three-fight win streak over mediocre foes since getting stopped in round seven by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr back in June 2012.
Macklin vs Lee has been a talked-about fight for a while now, particularly among UK fans. Lee is from Ireland, and Macklin represents both Ireland and England, born in Birmingham but with Irish roots.
There was some talk of Macklin-Lee landing on the June 7 Cotto-Martinez pay-per-view, but Lou DiBella says that Cotto's promotional company has the rights to the co-feature that night, and the opening two PPV slots aren't going to be money fights on the Macklin-Lee level.