Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs. Tureano Johnson – Official weights

By Boxing News - 08/25/2017 - Comments

Image: Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs. Tureano Johnson - Official weights

By Sean Jones: #1 IBF Tureano Johnson (19-1, 14 Kos) weighed in at 159.8 pounds on Thursday for his IBF middleweight eliminator bout against #2 IBF Sergiy Derevyanchenko (10-0, 8 KOs) on Friday night on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 & Fox Deportes from the Buffalo Run Casino, in Miami, Oklahoma.

(Photo credit: Gary Crow/Premier Boxing Champions)

For his part, 2012 Ukrainian Olympian Derevyanchenko weighed in at 159 lbs. This is a battle of 2 Olympians. Johnson fought in the 2008 Olympics.

Derevyanchenko, 31, will be a tough test for Johnson, who has fought just once in the last 2 years. Up until recently, Johnson had been out of the ring with a shoulder problem. He returned to the ring last March in defeating Fabiano Pena by a 2nd round knockout.

The winner of the Johnson vs. Derevyanchenko fight will be the International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger to IBF middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. However, it remains doubtful that the Johnson-Derevyanchenko will ever get a chance to fight GGG, as he still has a risky fight ahead of him against Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 16. The winner of that fight will likely look to face WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders. Golovkin wants to move up in weigh if he keeps winning.

Johnson, 33, is a little bit older than the 31-year-old Derevyanchenko. Both guys are roughly the same level in terms of age. Johnson has looked incredibly good since he turned pro. It’s hard to believe it’s taken him this long to get close to a title shot. The bad news is even if he beats Derevyanchenko on Friday night, he still is looking at 1 year before he gets a title shot unless the IBF orders the Canelo-Golovkin winner to fight him.

Derevyanchenko has knocked out his last 4 opponents since 2015. He’s stopped Kemah Russell, Sam Soliman, Mike Guy and Jessie Nicklow. However, it’s still difficult to gauge how good Derevyanchenko is as a pro, as the opposition he’s been facing have been far too weak to learn how good he is Derevyanchenko’s best win by far in his 3-year pro career came against Nicklow in 2015 in his 3rd round TKO. Nicklow was stopped in the 8th round by Jermain Taylor in 2011.

Derevyanchenko is kind of slow, but he has heavy hands. He would be really up against it if he were to fight Golovkin. He might give Golovkin some problems if he could handle his punching power, which I doubt. Golovkin could beat Derevyanchenko with his jab alone like he did against David Lemieux.

In other weights on the card, Immanuel Aleem (17-0-1, 10 KOs) weighed in at 158.8 lbs. for his 10 round fight against Hugo Centeno Jr. (25-1, 13 KOs). For his part, Centeno Jr. weighed in at 158.8 lbs.