Boxing: Gennady Golovkin to Fight Dominic Wade on April 23

Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, one of boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighters and hardest punchers, will return to action on April 23 to face Dominic Wade.

The fight will headline an HBO telecast that will take place at Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, Calif., just outside Los Angeles.

After several weeks of back-and-forth talk in the press, it seemed possible that “GGG” would be locking horns with Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the spring. Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Alvarez, opted to instead have the Mexican take on British star Amir Khan, and Golovkin was left in the proverbial rain.

Golovkin is considered by most as the true middleweight champion and his fight with Wade is a mandatory defense of his IBF 160-pound title. The Russian powerhouse has knocked out 21 consecutive foes, with the last coming in October when he dominated Canadian star David Lemieux in New York. The stoppage won Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) the IBF strap and he’s ready to defend it against the unheralded Wade.

Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) earned his crack at Golovkin’s belts by edging former champion Sam Soliman via split decision last June. The Maryland fighter hadn’t taken on any world-ranked fighters before that; in Golovkin, he’ll be facing by far the stiffest challenge of his career.

Also set to appear on the card is ferocious knockout artist Roman Gonzalez, regarded by some as the pound-for-pound king of boxing. His opponent has yet to be named.