By Jim Dower: Undefeated 2008 Ukrainian Olympian Sergiy Derevyanchenko (11-0, 9 KOs) has pulled out of his fight against journeyman Dashon Johnson (22-22-3, 7 KOs) this Saturday night on the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Lamont Peterson card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The 30-year-old Derevyanchenko is reportedly ill, according to ESPN, and he doesn’t want to fight under those conditions.
Instead of Derevyanchenko, 30, fighting on the Spence-Peterson card, he could be fighting on the undercard of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder’s title defense against Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz on March 3 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight card will be televised on Showtime Boxing.
Derevyanchenko and former 2-time junior middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade could be fighting between March and June. That would be an excellent match-up for the Wilder-Ortiz undercard if Andrade is willing to take the fight against Derevyanchenko at that time. Andrade spoke recently about having a bicep injury that he’s dealing with. He was talking about wanting to face David Lemieux though.
Derevyanchenko is already the International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger to IBF middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin. The IBF still hasn’t ordered the Golovkin vs. Derevyanchenko fight. They’re likely going to wait until Golovkin faces Saul Canelo Alvarez in their expected rematch on May 5. The winner of that fight will be ordered by the IBF to face Derevyanchenko.
Canelo is not a fighter that you can predict what he’ll do. If Canelo wins the IBF 160 lb. title from Golovkin, he might vacate it if he doesn’t feel that a match against Derevyanchenko is worth it to him. Derevyanchenko would then be stuck fighting for the vacated IBF belt against the next available contender.
Derevyanchenko earned the IBF mandatory position last year in stopping Tureano Johnson in the 12th round. Derevyanchenko dominated Johnson for most of the fight, but it was still not an easy one for him. Johnson had several good runs in which he connected with some bombs on Derevyanchenko’s sturdy chin, forcing him to box to stay out of range of his big punches. Derevyanchenko can’t afford too many of those type of fights in the future if he wants to have a lengthy career. That was the type of fight that can take a lot of a fighter.
Derevyanchenko was added just recently to the Spence vs. Peterson fight card. Derevyanchenko fight wasn’t expected to make it on the televised portion of the Showtime Boxing card. The card already has IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. defending against Javier Fortuna as the co-feature bout. Derevyanchenko’s fight against journeyman Dashon Johnson clearly wasn’t a big enough one to make it on the televised portion of the card.