By Roman Grishin

Russian cruiserweight Gregory Drozd is surprised that WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog is not interested in fighting Gennady Golovkin, the WBA's "regular" champion at 160-pounds. Drozd, a rising cruiserweight, is good friends with both fighters. He knows Pirog well, due to their Russian roots, and he was stablemates with Golovkin when both boxers were promoted by Universum.  

Pirog's handlers believe a fight with Golovkin is not the right move at the moment, because neither of them is well known in the United States, and the networks like HBO and Showtime are not interested in televising their bout.

"I know Dmitry very well. Of course, the situation that developed with him [not being able to secure big fights] is sad and strange. I would like it very much if he were to face the best boxers - like Felix Sturm or Sergio Martinez. However, he did not want to fight with Gennady Golovkin, whi I'm also on good terms with. We were stablemates under Universum. Gennady is a great guy, and so is Dmitry. So, in truth, I would not be very happy to see them beat each other up," Drozd said.

Roman Grishin covers boxing for Sportbox.ru.