Last year Gennady Golovkin was ordered to make a title defense versus mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Golovkin opted not to do so, instead fighting Vanes Martirosyan and then having a second fight with Canelo Alvarez. This resulted in Golovkin being stripped of the IBF middleweight title.
A year later, Gennady Golovkin and Sergiy Derevyanchenko will face each other for the now vacant IBF middleweight title.
Gennady Golovkin is 39-1-1, with his loss and his draw both coming to Canelo Alvarez. Since the draw and loss, Golovkin parted ways with long-time trainer Abel Sanchez, and is now being trained by Johnathan Banks. They have had one fight together, earlier this year versus Steve Rolls. Gennady won this fight by 4th round knockout.
Sergey Derevyanchenko comes into the fight with a record of 13-1, with his sole loss coming to Daniel Jacobs. This was Derevyanchenko’s first shot at a title, and he lost. He is hoping to avenge that loss by capturing a title versus Golovkin today. Derevyanchenko’s last fight was an uneventful unanimous decision win over Jack Culcay.
This will be an interesting marker to see where Gennady is with his age and new trainer. Derevyanchenko is a top 10 middleweight, but on the low end of those top 10 rankings. Gennady Golovkin, once the most feared man in boxing for his dynamin knockout power, hasn’t knocked a fighter out since last year. Derevyanchenko is a good matchup for Gennady because he doesn’t move particularly well, making him an easy target for his opponents.
Winning in dominant fashion should convince Golovkin to step back into the ring with some top 5 opponents or move up in weight where there are more fights available for him.
The fight will take place at Madison Square Garden and will be streamed on DAZN. The card starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time/4:00 p.m. Pacific, with the ring walks for the main event scheduled for 10:30 p.m. Eastern time/7:30 pacific.
Flip the pages for video of Derevyanchenko and GGG.