By Steve Kim
When WBA 'regular' middleweight champion, Ryoto Murata, faces Rob Brant this Saturday night from the Park Theater in Las Vegas, there will be an interested observer in attendance.
Tom Loeffler, who represents former unified middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs).
"I'll be there, I'm flying up for the fight,"he told BoxingScene.com on Wednesday afternoon.
Should Murata come out victorious, there is the possibility for the popular Japanese fighter to face 'GGG' in 2019.
"We have a very good relationship with Mr.(Akihiko) Honda and also with Top Rank and Bob Arum."
Teiken Promotions is the lead promoter for Murata with Top Rank intimately involved.
"That seems like a natural fight for Gennady,"continued Loeffler,"Gennady has fought all over the world. If that fight were to happen in Japan, Murata is a fighter that has done some great things. The Japanese boxing market is having a renaissance because Murata gets monster TV ratings in Japan, sells out arena's there."
Golovkin is now a network free agent after his contract with HBO expired last month. HBO has since announced their intention to drop boxing by the end of the year.
Loeffler points out that Golovkin fights have been televised in Japan for years and is already a well-known quantity in that country.
Arum made it clear that in,"talking with Mr. Honda and his group, they want to do that fight."
Should Murata defeat Brant, ''then it would be between Honda and Loeffler," Arum added.
As for where Golovkin-Murata would take place, Arum stated, "Nothing has to happen anywhere but I would think it would be a big event in the United States but it would be a humongous event in Japan in the Tokyo Dome."
2023-10-22 01:19:01
