As the hunt for a suitable opponent for Gennady Golovkin continues, all signs have lately been pointing to fringe contender Andy Lee as the fighter of choice. Well, maybe not of choice, but of necessity as there are few willing to step in the ring with Golovkin. Daniel Geale turned the fight down on the basis of the largest Australian PPV provider being unable to televise it due to being committed to a UFC card. Sergio Martinez, the lineal middleweght champion, is busy getting ready to face Miguel Cotto in June.

However, there has been one boxer who has at least made an attempt to call out Golovkin. Erislandy Lara, regarded by many as the best junior middleweight in the world, has taken to Twitter to say that he would welcome a fight with Golovkin. Only, of course, there is one big problem with that. Golovkin exclusively fights on HBO when he is televised in the United States. Lara works for Golden Boy which only works with Showtime when it comes to premium cable in the US.

Managing Director of K2 Promotions Tom Loeffler, who handles Golovkin, had this to say on the matter, via Boxing Scene's Jake Donovan:

"It's well known that Gennady Golovkin - when he fights in the United States - is under exclusive contract with HBO. Lara is with Golden Boy and fights on Showtime. So while he is a great fighter for whom we have a tremendous amount of respect, the bottom line is that HBO is our biggest strategic partner and it's up to his promoter to get him accepted by HBO. "The strange thing is that his name really never came up. His insistence took us by surprise. It's not that Gennady doesn't want to fight him - he'll fight anyone and continues to prove that. But we were looking at fighters who we know can and will fight on HBO."

Would Golovkin - Lara be a fascinating fight? As Lennox Lewis was fond of saying when he was a broadcaster on HBO, absolutely. But it isn't going to happen now and it may never happen. The Cold War of Boxing is gradually taking its toll with every passing day. We're witnessing it manifest itself on the big stage with the Top Rank trio of Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Tim Bradley constantly fighting each other. Floyd Mayweather only works with Golden Boy fighters for his PPV events. Now it's trickling down to other levels of the boxing infrastructure, and it's only going to get worse. The competition aspect of the Cold War has been tremendous in some regards and has given us some high-quality stuff over the past year. But, in the long-run, we can't fights like GGG - Lara, Mayweather - Bradley, Pacquiao - Robert Guerrero (OK, OK), or Lucas Matthysse - Ruslan Provodnikov among countless others.

Did Lara call out Golovkin because he knew that he would never have to get in the ring with him? Maybe. But the bad thing is that we will never know until the people in power decide to grow up.