Gennady Golovkin’s camp have confirmed he will put his unbeaten streak, along with his WBC interim and WBA middleweight belts, on the line in a unification bout with IBF champion David Lemieux on October 17.

The Kazakh fighter has been searching for an opponent since recording the 33rd victory of his career with a sixth round stoppage of Willie Munroe in May.

Having beaten the majority of the contenders the middleweight division has to offer, there was talk the 33-year-old could drop down a weight to face Floyd Mayweather Jr.

There was also speculation he could make the step up to super-middleweight to take on either Andre Ward or Carl Froch, before agreeing to face Canada’s Lemieux.

Lemieux has gone from strength-to-strength since back-to-back defeats in 2011, winning nine straight fights before capturing the IBF belt in June with an impressive points win over Hassan N’Dam.

Lemieux’s record of 34-2, with 31 wins coming via KO, would appear to make him a difficult prospect for GGG on paper and his promoter Tom Loeffler is happy to have secured a fight against a worthy contender.

Loeffler said: “Finally we were able to get somebody to agree to fight Gennady, somebody that had something to risk.

“Whenever there was a champion or somebody that had something to risk to fight Gennady, they would never get in the ring with him.

“The fans appreciate when a fighter has a lot of risk but steps up to the plate. That’s what makes a compelling fight.
“It’s a true middleweight championship, and that’s what Gennady has always wanted.”

The winner of October’s showdown in New York will go on to face the winner of Miguel Cotto against Saul Alvarez in November, with Cotto putting his regular WBC middleweight belt on the line against ‘Canelo’.

Meanwhile, New York plays host to another big fight on August 2 when Danny Garcia faces Paul Malignaggi at the Barclays Center. Garcia is 1.15 to win the contest, while Malignaggi is 5.25.