Boxing
Gennadiy Golovkin to face Sergiy Derevyanchenko for IBF title in New York
Gennadiy Golovkin didn’t get the fight he wanted. Instead, he’ll get something that could entice his rival to finally accept a trilogy fight.
Golovkin has agreed to an Oct. 5 fight with No. 1 IBF contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko for the vacant IBF middleweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York, live on DAZN.
"Everyone knows that I consider Madison Square Garden as my home away from home and there is nothing better than fighting there again. It is old school," said Golovkin. “On October 5, it’s going to be a good fight. Every time I enter the ring I try to give my fans the fight they want to see, the show they deserve. This will be such a fight."
The IBF title’s previous owner, Canelo Alvarez, was stripped of the belt earlier this month when Golden Boy Promotions was unable to secure a deal for a title defense against Derevyanchenko. This came on the heels of a third Canelo-GGG bout not coming together, and ultimately, Alvarez moved on from competing on Mexican Independence Day weekend for the first time in three years.
Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs) will step up in an attempt to regain the title he won back in 2015 when he stopped David Lemieux in the eighth round of their October 2015 showdown. Ironically, Golovkin, too, was stripped of the IBF title last June. That happened after he opted to face Vanes Martirosyan when his proposed May rematch with Alvarez was canceled because Alvarez tested positive for a banned substance. The IBF allowed GGG to face Martirosyan on the condition that he would face the No. 1 contender in his next fight.
And that No. 1 contender just happened to be Derevyanchenko. Instead of defending against Derevyanchenko, Golovkin rescheduled his rematch with Alvarez for September and ended up being stripped of the IBF title for not adhering to the sanctioning body’s request.
Alvarez won the title when he defeated Daniel Jacobs — who claimed the vacant belt by beating Derevyanchenko in October of 2018.
Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10 KOs) has fought once since then, a unanimous decision victory over Jack Culcay in April to ascend to the IBF’s No. 1 contender.
"I'm very excited that my team has secured another opportunity for me to fight for the Middleweight championship of the world," said Derevyanchenko. "I have a great deal of respect for 'GGG' and look forward to proving in the ring that I will be up to challenge and fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a world champion."
For GGG, this could be the perfect route to setting up a third fight with Alvarez. After Alvarez upended Jacobs, the Mexican champion stated that he had no interest in facing Golovkin considering that he wasn’t a world title holder. With dreams of becoming the undisputed middleweight champion, he’d need to go through Golovkin to reclaim the IBF belt, should GGG get past Derevyanchenko when the two clash in The Big Apple.
