The IBF and IBO middleweight titles will be on the line on Friday night when champion Gennady Golovkin takes on Kamil Szeremeta as a heavy minus-3000 favourite on the boxing odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Golovkin has been idle since claiming the two titles with a unanimous decision victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko in October of last year, which also lifted his pro boxing record to a sparkling 40-1-1 going into Friday night’s bout at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
The winner in each of his first 37 professional fights, Golovkin has been on the comeback trail since losing the WBA (Super), WBC, and IBO middleweight titles to rival Canelo Alvarez two years ago. After a September 2017 clash ended in a draw, the second meeting between the two middleweight titans ended in controversy, with Golovkin losing his belts by majority decision.
But the 38-year-old Kazakhstani wasted no time getting back into action. GGG quickly rebounded with a fourth-round KO win over Canadian Steve Rolls in June of last year that paid out on minus-3500 odds at online betting sites, followed by his victory over Derevyanchenko as minus-900 chalk just four months later. Golovkin has finished opponents in 35 of his 40 career wins, and is also expected to make short work of Szeremeta. The odds of Friday’s fight ending inside the distance are listed at minus-700, and GGG is set as a short plus-185 wager to claim victory at some point between Rounds 4 and 6.
Szeremeta puts his unblemished 21-0 record on the line on Friday as a lengthy plus-1100 underdog. The 31-year-old native of Bialystok, Poland also makes his return to the ring after an extended absence. The former European middleweight champion earned the right to face Golovkin by disposing of Mexico’s Oscar Cortes by TKO in the second round of an eight-round contest.
The victory over Cortes was the second time in five outings that Szeremeta had finished opponents inside two rounds. That marks a turnaround from early in his career, as Szeremeta saw 14 of his first 16 bouts as a pro get decided by the judges. And despite his recent impressive performances, Szeremeta lags as a plus-1900 wager on the boxing odds to defeat Golovkin by KO, TKO, or DQ, and is a distant plus-8000 bet to end GGG’s night in the first two rounds.
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