Big boost for Spike O’Sullivan as Munguia is ruled out of GGG fight

Spike O’Sullivan [27(19)-2(1)] is back in pole position for a fight with middleweight ruler Gennady Golovkin [37(33)-0-1].

Yesterday it was reported that the Cork middleweight had been overtaken by Mexican Jaime Munguia to replace megastar Canelo Alvarez for the big world title clash in Las Vegas on May 5th.

This has since been refuted, with Golovkin’s manager Tom Loeffler telling NY Fights that there were “lots of false rumours put there,” Later on last night it then emerged that the Nevada Athletic Commission had turned down Munguia as a potential opponent for the Kazakh due to his size and lack of experience.

In response, commission boss Bob Bennett revealed that an opponent has been approved for Golovkin – this fighter, however, has not yet been named.

Per BOB BENNETT, executive director of NAC: “An opponent has been approved for Gennady Golovkin at this time.” Nope, no release on who that is…

— Michael Woods (@Woodsy1069) April 5, 2018

21-year-old Munguia is a light middleweight who sports a 28(24)-0 undefeated record – containing no major names – and in 2017 was named the Ring Magazine Prospect of the Year. With the fight date coinciding with the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo, the young prospect was seen by Team Golovkin as an ideal replacement for countryman Canelo.

It should be noted that, while this is all encouraging news for 33-year-old O’Sullivan, the Nevada Commission and Bennett allowed for Conor McGregor to make his professional debut versus five-weight champion Floyd Mayweather – a stark contrast from this situation.

O’Sullivan stated that he had accepted an offer to face the WBC-WBA-IBF champ earlier this week, with his team looking to finalise the deal. The Mahon middleweight has been in full training camp at the Celtic Warriors Gym in Dublin during the whole saga – which was instigated by two failed rug tests from Canelo.

Confirmation on who will face Golovkin is expected today.