Gennady Golovkin has no intention of fighting on Dec. 10 with his bout against mandatory challenger Danny Jacobs pushed back to the first quarter of 2017, Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler told RingTV.com on Tuesday.

Rather than face a lesser opponent in December on HBO, Golovkin will wait to fight Jacobs in 2017 in order to satisfy the WBA’s order to meet his mandatory, Loeffler said. As a result, it will be the first time since 2012 that Golovkin, who holds the WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight titles, won’t fight at least three times in a year.

“He’s going to go straight into the Jacobs fight,” Loeffler told RingTV.com. “It’s not realistic (to fight before) because the WBA has mandated that he has to fight Jacobs. He’s the most active champion in boxing but when you have these types of obligations and when you’re mandated to fight someone a lot of times those negotiations take longer.”

No date or location has been decided but the talks have dragged on to the point where the fight had to be pushed back to 2017, he said. “The negotiations are taking longer than expected,” Loeffler remarked. “A fight of this magnitude needs a long buildup in order to promote it properly, so we decided it’s too short to do it on Dec. 10, so we’re targeting 2017 for that fight.”

The two sides apparently have until Friday to agree to terms or a purse bid will be ordered, even if no formal announcement has been made by the WBA. Loeffler has spoken of trying to reach a deal with Al Haymon, who handles Jacobs, before the purse bid starts. The WBA recently rejected Jacobs’ bid to increase the percentage purse split from 75-25 in favor of Golovkin to 60-40.

“We’re trying to make a deal rather than let it go to a purse bid,” Loeffler said. “So I’m trying to work out a deal that both fighters are happy with. It’s just more effective rather than go to a purse bid if possible.”

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