By Jim Dower: Promoter Lou Dibella expects IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin to be stripped of his title if he goes ahead with his promoter Tom Loeffler’s idea of facing junior middleweight Vanes Martirosyan on May 5th instead of his IBF mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko on that date.
Dibella reportedly turned down Loeffler’s step aside payment for Golovkin to bypass Derevyanchenko and face Martirosyan instead on May 5.
Loeffler is trying to work with the IBF and Dibella to resolve the issue so that Golovkin can take the fight on May 5th against Derevyanchenko. However, if the problem isn’t taken care of by next week on Wednesday, April 18, then Golovkin will possibly lose the May 5th fight date. That means Derevyanchenko still won’t get the fight with Golovkin on that date. He may still get it, but not on May 5th with just 3 weeks of training for his fighting style.
If Golovkin is stripped of his IBF by the International Boxing Federation, then Derevyanchenko will likely wind up facing Demetrius Andrade for the vacant IBF middleweight title. That’s not a big fight for the kind of money Derevyanchenko could make facing Golovkin if he were willing to wait until he’s done with his May 5th fight with Martirosyan and his rematch with Saul Canelo Alvarez in September of this year.
“There is NO provision for delaying a mandatory because a fight canceled due to a suspension for two failed drug tests. NONE. Nor should there be. #boxing,” Derevyanchenko’s promoter Lou Dibella said on his Twitter. ”Unequivocally, but I might not even have to ask the IBFUSAboxing,” Dibella said when asked if he’ll be asked whether he’ll try and get the IBF to strip Golovkin if he fights Vanes Martirosyan on May 5th instead of Derevyanchenko. ”Nope. One mandatory pending and available THAT THEY DON’T WANT TO FIGHT ON MAY 5. #truth #derevyanchenko,” Dibella said.
Dibella could be closing the door on a fight between Golovkin and his fighter Derevyanchenko forever if he chooses to keep pushing for the fight to happen on 3 weeks’ notice on May 5. Golovkin might choose to move on and forget about the IBF belt if it’s stripped from him. Even if Golovkin did take the fight on May 5, it might not work out the way Dibella believes it will be. Derevyanchenko is a good fighter, but he’s not the kind of fighter that is capable of beating Golovkin.
Derevyanchenko has never shown amazing skills or punching power. He’s just an average brawler, who has good but not great power. Derevyanchenko’s hand speed isn’t great. He’s short at 5’9”, and he would be giving up almost two inches in height and threw inches in reach to Golovkin. Derevyanchenko’s best win of his career was his 12th round knockout victory over Tureano Johnson last year in August, and that was a very, very hard fight for him. Derevyanchenko took a lot of punishment in winning hat fight.
“Gennady wants to fight May 5. There’s been a lot of challenges — opponents, sanctioning bodies — we’re sorting out an amicable solution while not denying [Golovkin] the opportunity to fight May 5,” Loeffler said today at his small press conference with Golovkin. “We respect all their rules. Now we have to see what can be accomplished. It would be a shame to have a [Golovkin] fight like Derevyanchenko promoted on a three-week basis in potentially a much smaller arena than it would be.”
Dibella might be seeing the Golovkin vs. Derevyanchenko fight as a win-win for him regardless of how it turns out. If Derevyanchenko wins the fight with Golovkin on three weeks’ notice on May 5th, then he’ll immediately become more popular in the boxing world. But even if Derevyanchenko loses the fight, as long as he’s competitive with GGG, he’ll increase his popularity with the fans. As long as Derevyanchenko doesn’t get obliterated by Golovkin, he should make it tough enough for him to win that it will raise his status in the boxing world. Dibella is obviously counting on Derevyanchenko being competitive with Golovkin and possibly winning, but it might not end well for him.
Derevyanchenko was able to get the better of his last two opponents Dashon Johnson and Tureano due to his jab, but he’s not going to be able to beat Golovkin in a jabbing contest. That’s as losing battle for Derevyanchenko. He’ll be forced to get in the trenches and slug with Golovkin if he wants to beat him, and that could end badly for him because he doesn’t have the same kind of punching power. Derevyanchenko’s fighting style is also one that Golovkin is very comfortable with. Unless Derevyanchenko took a page out of Canelo’s playbook by running from him for 12 rounds, it could end badly for him.
“I feel great. I’ve been in Big Bear [training]. I want to fight,” Golovkin said. “Just give me a fight. This is just a crazy situation for boxing. Cinco de Mayo is a huge date for boxing … no date? Terrible. I feel very comfortable. Why do you ask me this” Golovkin said when asked if he’s worried about not ever being able to get a fight against Canelo. ”Do I look like an old man. Canelo, he’s gone. Billy Joe Saunders, he’s not ready for the last belt unfortunately. Everybody knows this is my dream. This is my goal, all the belts in the middleweight division. Right now the situation in the middleweight division is crazy. We have 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks for pay-per-view fight. This is nothing. We lose May. We lose a lot of time. Maybe we come back to 3, 4 times per year. This is better for fight, just because I lose interest. This is a good division. I feel very comfortable. I feel very good. I like to bring more action, more drama show. I like to bring more emotion. I can’t because nobody is ready. Right now, it’s crazy,” Golovkin said.
The IBF hasn’t given Golovkin permission to take the fight with Martirosyan unfortunately. Unless his promoter Tom Loeffler can cut a deal with Dibella for Golovkin to steer around Derevyanchenko to fight Martirosyan, GGG will lose his IBF title. The IBF is in a position where they have to do something to get Golovkin to defend against their mandatory challenger Derevyancehnko, because he hasn’t defended against a mandatory for 2 years since his win over Dominic Wade in 2016.