UFC, Gennady Golovkin Book Same Date for Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, New York is renowned for hosting sporting spectacles of the highest calibre and, according to reports, two of the biggest combat sport events of 2016—Gennady Golovkin’s mandatory IBF title defence and UFC 198—have been pencilled in for the same night.

As noted by MMA Fighting, the UFC has scheduled its showpiece for April 23 at the illustrious venue, which would be the first of its kind in New York given the state’s laws on banning professional MMA.

There have been rumours that Jon Jones and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier could be the main event on the bill in what’d be a much anticipated rematch of their UFC 182 tussle, per The MMA Hour (h/t Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting).

However, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, Golovkin’s representatives have also booked the venue for the same night, with the middleweight likely to defend his IBF title against against Tureano Johnson before a massive showdown with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez later on in the year.

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It’s a venue Golovkin knows well, having beaten David Lemieux there in his last outing and Daniel Geale back in 2014. As noted in Rafael’s piece, the Kazakh star drew in a capacity crowd of 20,548 against Lemieux, when his eighth-round stoppage win saw him add the IBF strap to his WBA (Super), IBO and interim WBC honours.

The UFC are still waiting to know for sure if professional MMA will be legalised in the state. According to Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter, UFC 198 will occur at the Garden on the aforementioned date if so, and if not, the Honda Center in Anaheim will be the venue:

It'll be intriguing to see which of these two massive events does end up being staged at Madison Square Garden, but fans of combat sports surely won't be disappointed by either.

At the moment, Golovkin is a wonderful watch. His win against Lemieux was his 15th title defence in succession, not to mention his 21st knockout in a row. The 33-year-old is arguably the biggest puncher in boxing at the moment, with his sledgehammer jabs and brutal uppercuts making him a must-watch.

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Golovkin, as evident by this recent social media post, also has eyes for a unification bout with Billy Joe Saunders:

Jones and Cormier faced each other back in January last year after a bitter promotion, with the former, who was then the champion, taking the victory.

Since then, Jones has been stripped of the belt after his involvement in a hit-and-run incident, allowing Cormier to win the vacant title against Anthony Johnson at UFC 187. After defending against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 192 and with Jones back on the scene following his layoff, it seems inevitable the two will meet again this year.