Eddie Hearn wishes Gennadiy Golovkin had better counsel.

The head of Matchroom boxing couldn’t help but express his disappointment with the way the former middleweight champion’s career has gone as of late.

After suffering a lackluster points loss to rival Canelo Alvarez in their super middleweight unification bout last September, Golovkin recently vacated two of his existing middleweight titles.

The Kazakh puncher voluntarily relinquished his WBA 160-pound belt last month ahead of a scheduled purse bid with the organization’s “regular” champion in Erislandy Lara.

And in February, Golovkin dropped his IBF middleweight title after receiving an order to face his undefeated mandatory challenger in Esquiva Falcao.

As a result of those two actions, Golovkin is no longer a champion at middleweight. It is not clear what Golovkin’s next steps are.  

In a recent interview, Hearn seemed to suggest that Golovkin could have been given better advice as it related to his mandatory status with the sanctioning bodies. A bit of foresight, Hearn said, on the part of his handlers could have led to a situation where Golovkin could still call himself a titlist.

Hearn has worked together with Golovkin in the past.

“I think—I’m probably gonna upset someone now—I just feel recently, particularly now, I just think he lacks a little bit of guidance,” Hearn said of Golovkin in an interview on the Boxing with Chris Mannix Podcast. “Do you know what I mean? He’s very experienced. He’s got a great team of people around him. But sometimes you need someone steering the ship. By steering the ship, I mean standing right at the front, looking out for the weather and telling you exactly where you are going. I feel like he got into a situation—and it’s not really his fault because the Lara fight was called on him. The Falcao fight was called on him, which is probably the fight that I would have taken. Also, Gennadiy has gotten to the stage where he doesn’t actually need the belts, but it would be quite nice to have one.

“Now he has none. That’s the problem with no one steering the ship (not looking out for mandatories). You can have people working on the ship, but you need to be saying [what is ahead], just to let you know—it’s the anticipation. You have to be five or six steps ahead, so when you go into that Canelo [fight], you’re already speaking to the governing bodies and making sure you have a plan in place if you lose. But he lost, then the mandatories are called on him, then he relinquished him. Then Lara was called on him, then he relinquishes [a second belt], and then before you know it, he’s no longer a world champion. And that kind of speeds up the process of retirement because you sort of get to the stage where actually, ‘oh I got rid of the belts.’”

Last month, the trainer of middleweight contender Jaime Munguia, Erik Morales, indicated that Golovkin appeared to be on the brink of taking a long hiatus from boxing. Munguia, who is promoted by Golden Boy, has frequently been floated as a top opponent for Golovkin.

Hearn likes that fight for Golovkin as well, but he suspects there will not be enough money from the backers to satisfy Golovkin. Hearn believes it will be difficult to entice Golovkin to get back into the ring because he is accustomed to making outsize paydays. In addition to the high-grossing Alvarez blockbusters, Golovkin was an early beneficiary of the inflated purses that were being handed out by DAZN early on in the streaming platform’s inception.

“[Golovkin] last boxed in September, and we’re coming up not far from May,” Hearn said. “He hasn’t got a fight scheduled. You really don’t want to be fighting once a year at 41. I love the Jaime Munguia fight because I think Gennadiy was the favorite in that fight and it’s a great fight for Jaime Munguia. The problem is as well, just being honest, Gennadiy Golovkin is accustomed to making a lot of money. And he’s not going to come back and fight for a couple of million dollars. So you’ve got to put your hand in your pockets to get Gennadiy Golovkin back in the ring.”