WBA orders fight between Gennady Golvkin and Erislandy Lara.

Erislandy Lara will be the next opponent for Gennady Golovkin. A title consolidation fight between WBA's acknowledged middleweight belt holders has been rescheduled. The news came hours after many outlets reported that Golovkin has vacated his IBF middleweight title in order to avoid fighting Brazil's Esquiva Falcao in a required title defense.

Once again, Golovkin's and Lara's teams must negotiate the parameters of their long-overdue consolidation fight, but this time, instead of the customary 30-day window, they have only 15 days. The WBA brass has long since run out of patience in trying to settle the issue, therefore there is a risk that the bout ends in a purse bid or that one party simply relinquishes their version of the middleweight belt.

The fight was originally scheduled for September 23, six days after Golovkin's loss to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in their trilogy matchup last September 17 in Las Vegas. Golovkin attempted to challenge Alvarez for the undisputed title at super middleweight but was unsuccessful because his own WBA/IBF middleweight title reign was not in jeopardy.

But the timer was ticking. When Golovkin (42-2-1, 37KOs) defeated Murata in the ninth round of their title unification fight on April 9 in Saitama, Japan, Lara became the mandatory challenger. With the victory, the 40-year-old Kazakh boxer won the WBA "Super" title while retaining his IBF crown.

The WBA declined to order the two-time unified middleweight champion to fight Lara (29-3-3, 17KOs) next because he already has a contract to fight Alvarez in their trilogy bout. Before making his final exception in lieu of the obligatory championship defense, Golovkin needs the WBA's approval. The WBA agreed, but only after Golovkin had to wait 120 days before taking on Lara.

Golovkin is already back where he was more than four months ago, but it's doubtful that a bout with Lara will ever take place.