Michael Zerafa insists that he is next in line for a shot at Gennadiy Golovkin.

Such a fight—if rumors are true—could result in either or both of Golovkin’s middleweight titles becoming vacant.

A breaking news story on Fox Sports Australia quoted Melbourne’s Zerafa in claiming that a verbal agreement is in place to face the Kazakh boxer next March at a location to be determined. Zerafa first has a fight scheduled with Italy’s Danilo Creati (8-0, 1KO) on November 23 in Sydney.

Of greater concern is the outstanding mandatory obligations for both his WBA ‘Super’ and IBF titles. The WBA previously ordered a title consolidation fight between Golovkin (42-2-1, 37KOs) and secondary titlist Erislandy Lara (29-3-3, 17KOs). As krikya360.com previously reported, the fight was tabled after an exception was filed with the IBF, whose mandatory challenger Esquiva Falcao is now in negotiations to next face Golovkin.

krikya360.com has learned that Golovkin-Falcao must happen by next February, without exception. The IBF title would be declared vacant should Golovkin abandon those plans, absent consent from Falcao (30-0, 20KOs)—who is promoted by Top Rank—to instead accept another fight—which is not the case, as this goes to publish.

Golovkin walked into a WBA mandatory title defense order following his loss to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in their September 7 trilogy clash at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The same venue hosted their previous two meetings, which came with the lineal/WBC/WBA/IBF middleweight championship at stake. The third bout was contested for Alvarez’s undisputed super middleweight championship, with Golovkin losing a twelve-round decision.

The fight came with the WBA’s conditional approval, with the guarantee that he’d next honor his middleweight mandatory. The approval to face Alvarez was Golovkin’s final exception with the WBA, which locked him into a fight with Lara.

A loophole was exploited when he went to the IBF with a request to instead have a fight ordered to next face Falcao, just as the deadline approached for his negotiation period with Lara. Representatives from the IBF and WBA both agreed to allow that fight first, with the guarantee that Lara would get the winner.

Golovkin inherited Lara as a mandatory challenger following his ninth-round knockout of Ryota Murata in their IBF/WBA unification bout on April 9 at Saitama Arena in Saitama, Japan. Murata hadn’t fought since December 2019 but managed to not only retain his title status but receive an upgrade to WBA ‘Super’ champ during his downtime.

Golovkin honored his previous IBF mandatory in a December 2020 eighth-round knockout of unbeaten Kamil Szeremeta. The win came fourteen months after regaining the IBF title in an October 2019 twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko, which was widely regarded as one of the best fights of that year.

Prior to regaining his title, Golovkin held at least one middleweight title—secondary or otherwise—from 2010 through his September 2018 rematch with Alvarez.

Lara won the WBA ‘World’ (Regular) middleweight title following a first-round knockout of Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna last May 1 in Carson, California. The win came as he was still a recognized secondary titleholder at junior middleweight, vacating that belt to instead campaign in the 160-pound division. His lone defense of the middleweight belt came in an eighth-round knockout of Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan on May 28 in Brooklyn, New York.

The joint WBA/IBF resolution noted that Lara can now enter a voluntary defense of his title, with the assurance that he will be granted a shot at the winner. That, of course, will be dependent upon Golovkin-Falcao materializing and the victor not opting to vacate the WBA title.

Both sanctioning bodies insist that Golovkin is out of special permit exceptions, which would presumably disqualify any plans—rumored or otherwise—to instead face Zerafa next spring with either of his belts at stake.

Ironically, Zerafa would stand to benefit should either belt become vacant. The 30-year-old fringe contender is ranked number one in the WBA middleweight rankings, and number-two with the IBF. He has won three in a row following a ten-round majority decision defeat to former WBO welterweight titlist Jeff Horn in their December 2019 rematch. Zerafa defeated his countryman via ninth-round knockout four months prior, derailing plans for a Murata-Horn secondary WBA middleweight title fight.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox