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Gennady Golovkin will take on Sergiy Derevyanchenko for the IBF Middleweight title. The pair will square off at the Madison Square Garden in New York on October 5, 2019.
Gennady Golovkin
Golovkin will try to regain the IBF belt which he once used to own. It can be recalled that it was stripped from him when he took a short-notice fight against Vanes Martirosyan in 2018. That fight came about after Canelo Alvarez was suspended for failing a drug test and the Mexican could not meet Triple G for their rematch. Golovkin negotiated to fight Martirosyan rather than face Derevyanchenko who was the mandatory challenger. Derervyanchenko went on to fight Danny Jacobs for the vacant belt in October 2018. The latter won via split decision. Jacobs then lost the belt to Canelo but Canelo was stripped for failing to fight Derevyanchenko who is still the mandatory challenger. Golovkin has a record of 39-1-1 with 35 knockouts.
Serhiy Derevyanchenko
As for Derevyanchenko, he will get a second chance to fight for the same belt. The Ukrainian is 13-1 with 10 knockouts but a knockdown suffered against Jacobs helped seal his first professional defeat. Derevyanchenko fought and outpointed Jack Culcay last April 13 in a world title eliminator to regain the mandatory challenger slot once again. He fights out of Brooklyn, New York and hopes to get the support of the crowd to help him against a tougher opponent than Jacobs. Known as the technician, Derevyanchenko has wins over Sam Soliman and Taureano Johnson but he has not faced a devastating puncher like Golovkin. He enters this match as a sizeable boxing betting underdog.
Who Wins?
Golovkin is a solid favorite here but I honestly believe this one is closer than what many people think. If this was the Triple G from four years ago, this won’t be an easy pick to make because we all know that Golovkin is the much better boxer between the two and that he was a beast during his prime. But Golovkin is now 37 years old and he hasn’t looked as scary in the last two years. Whether you like it or not, I think Golovkin has slowly declined over the past two years and that could make him ripe for an upset here.
Derevyanchenko is 33 years old and in my opinion, he is still in his prime or is closer to his prime than Triple G. He also doesn’t have too many fights in his resume which means that he doesn’t have too many mileage. He has also gone the distance several times recently which gives him that much-needed experience against a grizzled veteran like Triple G.
One common opponent between these two is Danny Jacobs whom Golovkin narrowly beat and who Derevyanchenko lost to. But that does not necessarily mean that Derevyanchenko is going to lose right away. He’s gotten better than he was against Jacobs and he’s added experience since that fight. As for Golovkin, we know what happened to him in the two Canelo fights and the Rolls fight was cherry-picking.
When I compare the two, I think Golovkin has more punching power. Derevyanchenko got dropped by Jacobs and we all know that Triple G has more power than Jacobs. If Derevyanchenko thinks that he can slug it out with Golovkin, I think he’s wrong because Triple G is going to punish him with body punches.
On the other hand, Golovkin is known for his granite chin. He has never been knocked down, even in the amateurs. So for Derevyanchenko to win, I think he needs to outbox Golovkin. However, that is easier said and done because as I said earlier, Golovkin is more technically gifted. Derevyanchenko can box and is a good boxer but I think Triple G is better between the two.
This is going to be an exciting fight. I believe Derevyanchenko will give Golovkin a good fight early and he will survive Triple G’s early onslaught. However, I think that Golovkin’s body shots will wear him down and somewhere in the middle rounds, Triple G will start to take over. I think this will be a late stoppage or a unanimous decision win for Gennady Golovkin. Prediction: Gennady Golovkin
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