If WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders doesn’t accept the offer made to him by IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s promoters at K2 for a unification fight in April, then Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) will face his #1 IBF mandatory Tureano Johnson (19-1, 13 KOs) on April 23rd. The fight will be televised on HBO Championship boxing at Madison Square Garden in New York.
This would not be a pay-per-view bout like the 33-year-old Golovkin’s last fight in October against IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux. Tureano, 31, is a good fighter, but he is not popular enough for Golovkin to fight on PPV against him.