The World Boxing Association (WBA) ordered the bout between middleweight super champion, Gennady Golovkin, and the champion of the category, Erislandy Lara, which is part of the World Title Reduction Plan of the pioneer organization. 

The WBA Championships Committee granted a 15-day negotiation period to both fighters, which began on February 8 and will end on February 23. 

Originally, Golovkin was supposed to face the IBF mandatory challenger due to the mandatory rotation of fighters between organizations, but the Kazakh relinquished that title today and for that reason the WBA has decided to order the fight against Lara. 

Golovkin received special permission to move up to super middleweight and face Saul Alvarez last September. That ruling specified that he was to defend his middleweight crown in his next bout against Lara to determine the unified champion of the categories. 

Championship rule C.11 states that the champion must defend the title against the mandatory challenger within 120 days from the date he became champion. In the case of “GGG”, he won it last April 9, so the period expired on August 8, 2022.

In case no agreement is reached or any of the parties refuses to negotiate, the WBA Championships Committee may submit the fight to bidding with a split of 75% for Golovkin and 25% for Lara.