By Chris Williams: Ryota Murata (13-1, 10 KOs) is targeting Gennady “GGG” Golovkin as a guy he wants to face now that he’s captured the WBA World middleweight title last Sunday with his 7th round knockout win over a depleted looking Hassan N’Dam (36-3, 21 KOs) in Tokyo, Japan. Murata wants the fight against Golovkin, but he’s not high on the priority list for the Kazakhstan fighter.
(Photo credit: Rishad Marquardt)
Golovkin is only interested in a rematch with Saul Canelo Alvarez in early next year. If Golovkin wins that fight, he’ll very likely be looking for a third fight against the red-haired Mexican star. Murata would be a dramatic detour for Golovkin, as it’s not a big money fight in the U.S, and the boxing public is not demanding that fight.
“Boxing lovers will know there’s a stronger middleweight champion than me out there,” said Murata in talking about his interest in facing Gennady Golovkin. “I will try my best to beat him.”
Golovkin vs. Murata would be more of a business level fight than one in which it would be the best against the beat. Murata is not viewed as the second best or even the 3rd best fighter in the 160 lb. division by boxing fans.
Murata needs to build up a name in the U.S for him to make a fight between him and Golovkin worthwhile. Murata’s rematch with N’Dam last Sunday was televised early in the morning on ESPN, and it was likely seen by very few boxing fans in the U.S due to the time that it was shown.
If Murata wants to create interest in a fight between him and Golovkin, he needs to fight some of these fighters:
• Danny Jacobs
• Sergiy Derevyanchenko
• Jermall Charlo
• David Lemieux
• Jermell Charlo
I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for Murata to fight any of those guys, because I don’t think he ever will.
Golovkin’s fights are televised on HBO Boxing. Murata is with Top Rank promotions, and it looks as if his fights are going to be piped into the U.S on ESPN. That’s going to make it a problem for Golovkin and Murata to ever fight. Golovkin isn’t going to fight on ESPN just so he can face Murata. And we’re not likely to see Murata fighting on HBO.
The WBA can certainly order Golovkin to fight Murata if they want. It won’t be surprising at all if that’s what the WBA does. It would be a waste of a fight for Golovkin to have to face the unproven Murata instead of someone that the boxing public is interested in seeing GGG fight. After Golovkin gets done facing Canelo, the fans wants to see Golovkin face Danny Jacobs in a rematch. That would be a big fight. Murata is still too unproven for him to be worth it for Golovkin to fight him.
If Top Rank wants Golovkin to fight Murata, then they need to have the new WBA champion become more known in the U.S by fighting the likes of Charlo, Derevyachenko, Lemieux or Jacobs. I don’t think Top Rank will make that move though. If you look at the way that Murata has been matched since he turned pro in 2013, he’s being put in with guys that are not a real threat to beating him. Even N’Dam was someone that was a non-threat to Murata. He should have beaten him in the first fight, and probably would have if a different set of judges had worked the fight last May in their first fight.
Aside from N’Dam, Murata’s opponents have been virtually unrecognizable names from the 2nd and 3rd tier of boxing. Murata ha been matched very carefully by Top Rank to keep him unbeaten. They haven’t thrown Murata in with any lions as of yet. At 31, Murata is getting up there in age, and he’s going to need to start fighting good opposition sooner or later if he wants to have kind of real career. Right now, Murata is just a paper champion without pro experience against the talented fighters. N’Dam was not a major player at 160, even though he was the WBA’s secondary belt holder at 160.
If Murata is serious about wanting to fight GGG, he’ll help make that fight become a reality by defending his newly won WBA 160 lb. title against some of the lions in the middleweight division so that the boxing fans in the U.S can see that he’s serious about wanting that fight, and not just someone looking to get the fight for the payday. Murata has been a professional for 4 years now since winning a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics.
I personally thought Murata was beaten twice in the 2012 Olympics. As a pro, Murata still as of yet hasn’t faced a good fighter. N’Dam is not a good fighter in my opinion. He’s a guy that was beaten by David Lemieux and Peter Quillin. If Murata can prove that he can defeat Jacobs or Charlo, then you can say that he’s worthwhile for Golovkin to fight. Until then, I rate Murata as just a belt holder.