Word on the street is that there were three names in the heavy mix to get a dance with middleweight beast Gennady Golovkin, and four, if you count Miguel Cotto. Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler told me Monday night that Team Triple G wants a crack at the Puerto Rican hitter’s WBC belt, but haven’t been able to get reciprocal love from Team Cotto.

Willie Monroe took to Twitter saying he was out of the running, and he thought Tureano Johnson got the nod. But Johnson tells RingTV.com that he is not the lead dog in the hunt. A source not affiliated with Team Golovkin told me that 28-year-old Argentine Jorge Sebastian Heiland, (25-4-2 with 13 KOs; four of the wins came against journeyman Mateo Veron), a lefty who beat Matt Macklin in a WBC eliminator scrap in November, is the lead candidate to meet the Kazahk mauler.

That fight would take place in May, most likely, and run on HBO.

“I want a Golovkin fight bad,” the 31-year-old Johnson (18-1 with 13 KOs), a Bahamas-born boxer who works with Gary Shaw Promotions, told me. “Some say Heiland has the better resume. Why? Does his win over a shot Macklin mean more than my performance against Curtis Stevens? Why are people forgetting that I took all of Stevens’ power shots and was up 8-1 or 7-2 on everyones’ cards going into the tenth. The fact that I got ‘caught’ with 51 seconds left somehow erases my work in the entire fight? Was Paul Williams’ career garbage because he got caught by Sergio Martinez with one punch? Bottom line Heiland is an opponent. He has four losses and two draws. And some of those were questionable. I have maybe lost five to ten ROUNDS tops as a pro! I’m a 2008 Olympian with over 300 amateur fights. I made the quarterfinals in the Olympics. I trained for five years in Cuba. Ask Guillermo Rigondeaux who deserves the fight! I’m no bum!”

Day-um, guy has me convinced! He should work PR when he’s done with boxing, LOL….

Promoter Shaw weighed in on the matter as well. “We like the Tureano-Golovkin fight, and Tureano versus Miguel Cotto as well,” he told me. “Either fight is the right one for Tureano. If we don’t get Golovkin, maybe we can get the Cotto fight. Tureano is deserving of a big shot. He’s worked his way up, he wasn’t given anything. As for the loss, that will always be a win in my book and he would be undefeated.” Shaw still believes the ref pulled the plug too hastily in the Stevens scrap. “One fight doesn’t make a career.”

Johnson continued his persistent lobbying effort. “And as far as not beating a top fifteen opponent, I have accepted every fight as a pro,” he continued. “I have never rejected one fight! I’ve begged my team to get me these fights with all these guys, but they won’t fight me. There’s always some excuse when my name comes up. Maybe laterÔǪif the money is rightÔǪI don’t know who he isÔǪhe’s a bumÔǪThey won’t fight me!”

Maybe now they will; that was a most passionate and well articulated plea.

Follow Woods, a Brooklyn resident and formerly on staff at ESPN The Magazine, on Twitter.