By Ian S Palmer
Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan returns to the ring this Saturday, October 5th when he takes on Sergiy Derevyanchenko of Ukraine in a 12-round bout at Madison Square Garden in New York. The bout is for the vacant IBF, and IBO World Middleweight Titles and can be seen live in North America in DAZN. Fans in the UK can catch it on Sky Sports Action. Golovkin last fought in June when he rolled over Steve Rolls in four rounds while Derevyanchenko beat Jack Culcay by a close unanimous decision in April.
Golovkin’s 37 years old and now and his hopes of another rematch against Canelo Alvarez are fading with Alvarez simply waiting until Triple G ages some more before getting into the ring with him again. Golovkin arguably won both decisions against Alvarez but his official record stands at 39-1-1 with 35 Kos with the loss and draw both coming to Alvarez. Golovkin had a streak of 23 straight knockouts until beating Danny Jacobs by unanimous decision in March of 2017. Since then he’s gone the distance twice with Alvarez and stopped Rolls and Vanes Martirosyan in the second round in May, 2018.
Golovkin’s power may be slightly diminished but he managed to drop Jacobs and also wobbled Alvarez both fights. The former champ stands just over 5-feet-10-inches tall with a 70-inch reach and turned pro back in 2006 after a fine amateur career. He’s fought 200 rounds since then with his stiffest competition being Alvarez, Jacobs, Kell Brook, David Lemieux, Willie Monroe Jr., Marco Antonio Rubio, Martin Murray, Daniel Geale, Curtis Stevens, Matthew Macklin and Gabriel Rosado. He was attempting to defend his title for the 21st time when losing to WBC and WBA Titles to Alvarez last September.
He isn’t perfect, but Golovkin simply goes about his job no matter who he faces. He’s also shown to have a granite chin to go along with his power and fine boxing skills. He isn’t afraid of getting hit while he unleashes fierce body and head shots but can also be patient while stalking his prey. He’s usually in great shape and just keeps coming and eventually wears the majority of his opponents down. With an 85.4 per cent knockout ratio it’s fair to say Golovkin’s a KO artist, in fact one of the best ever in the middleweight division.
Derevyanchenko is 33 years old and now fights out of Brooklyn. He’ll climb through the ropes with a fine record of 13-1 along with 10 big Kos. He’s relatively small for a middleweight at 5-foot-9 and has a reach of 67.5 inches, giving up an inch in height and 2.5-inches in reach to Golovkin. Derevyanchenko has boxed just 81 rounds since turning pro in 2014 and that’s mainly due to his current knockout ratio of 71.4 per cent. He enjoyed a fine amateur career before turning pro and boxed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China as well as in the World Series of Boxing.
His lone pro defeat came via a split decision to his Brooklyn, New York stablemate Daniel Jacobs in a tilt for the vacant IBF Middleweight Title last October. There’s no doubt Derevyanchenko has good power, but he hasn’t had the chance to prove it against anybody in the upper level of the middleweight division as of yet other than Jacobs. So far, he’s beaten the likes of Culcay, Dashon Johnson, Raul Munoz, Tureano Johnson, Jessie Nicklow, Sam Soliman, Kemahl Russell and Elvin Ayala. He definitely took a step up in class against Jacobs and came close to winning the fight.
Prediction…
Derevyanchenko has heart and determination and he should be able to put up quite a battle against Golovkin. So far it appears Derevyanchenko has a solid chin and it’ll be interesting to see how he deals with Golovkin’s power and vice versa. As long as Golovkin hasn’t lost his skills, power and chin over the past few months I’m expecting Golovkin to emerge victorious in a gruelling contest.
