Sanctioning bodies unanimously reject Vanes Martirosyan for Gennady Golovkin title defense on May 5

Former junior middleweight world title contender Vanes Martirosyan was briefly considered as a replacement opponent for world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin on May 5, but was quickly rejected in a conference call with IBF, WBC, and WBA officials Tuesday morning.

It is probably a good thing the sanctioning bodies shot down the possibility of Golovkin-Martirosyan for a variety of reasons.

Martirosyan, like Jaime Munguia, who was also rejected as a possible GGG opponent last week, is not a middleweight and fights at 154-pounds. Furthermore, Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KO's), an Armenia native residing in Glendale, California, who turns 32 on May 1, has not fought since 2016.

Throwing in an inactive fighter into a world title matchup is asinine enough. Add in Golovkin to the equation, and now we are talking about Garcia-Salka type nonsense. It is simply ludicrous.

Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KO's), 36, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Los Angeles, will likely face WBO No. 5 contender Gary O'Sullivan (27-2, 19 KO's). Whoever the champion ends up facing, the bout will be on regular HBO, non-pay-per-view, and it appears StubHub Center in Carson, California is the likely destination.

Golovkin currently holds the WBC, WBA, IBF, and IBO middleweight titles. He needs just one more belt to become the undisputed champion of the 160-pound weight class.

That last strap is held by the unbeaten Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KO's), who squares off against ex-Golovkin opponent Martin Murray on June 23 at The O2 Arena in London.