By Jim Dower: If Gennady Golovkin and his team choose not to fight on Cinco de Mayo on May 5th, it won’t be due to them not having challengers that are willing to step inside the ring and face him at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Earlier on Wednesday, Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez revealed that their fighter Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan was pulling out of the May 5th fight with GGG after he’d already been approved by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The rationale for O’Sullivan pulling out of the fight with Golovkin was because the money wasn’t enough, and it was too much of a short notice fight. However, some boxing fans view this as a move by Golden Boy to try limit Golovkin’s opportunity to fight on May 5th. If he doesn’t fight on that date, then there’s no risk him losing or potentially looking bad and decreasing interest from the boxing public in the Canelo fight in September. It also helps Canelo and Golden Boy if Golovkin doesn’t fight on May 5th because he’ll be likely be rusty if he must sit out of the ring for an entire year before fighting Canelo in September. Golovkin had been used to fighting 3 times per year until his career was slowed down due to his fights with Daniel Jacobs and Canelo.
Golovkin’s IBF mandatory challenger Sergey Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs) wants to fight him, and his management are pushing hard to force the issue. If Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) doesn’t take that fight, he could end up being stripped by the International Boxing Federation unless he can work out some kind of step aside deal with Derevyanchenko if the IBF orders him to fight him. Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) has already been given the green light to fight Golovkin by the California State Athletic Commission. The only thing that would block the 31-year-old Martirosyan from getting the fight is if the IBF, WBA and WBC reject the fight, and that’s what the case is right now. But if Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler want Martirosyan enough, they could push for the fight and try and work out a deal.
“I’m ready to glove up,” Martirosyan said to the latimes.com. “When they asked me if I’d take this fight on Monday, I said yes. I didn’t ask about money at all.”
Martirosyan being out of the ring for 2 years is what is holding him back from being accepted by the sanctioning bodies. He hasn’t fought in 23 months since his loss to Erislandy Lara in their rematch in May of 2016. Martirosyan’s recent record isn’t so great either. In his last three fights, he’s lost twice in defeats to Lara and Jermell Charlo. In fairness to Martirosyan, he fought well enough to beat Charlo, but the three judges – Adalaide Byrd, Lisa Giampa and Dave Moretti – all scored it for Charlo. Boxing News 24 scored it for Martirosyan by a 6 rounds to 4 score. Moretti and Byrd both worked the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight last September. However, Moretti scored it for Golovkin 115-113, whereas Byrd had Canelo winning 118-110. That was not a popular score by Byrd. Still, Martirosyan being out of the ring for 2 years make him an unsuitable opponent. Of course, that doesn’t mean Golovkin won’t fight him. He could still fight him.
”Now that Canelo-Golovkin has been called off the IBF mandatory is due,” Derevyanchenko’s manager Keith Connolly said to ESPN.com. “Sergey has worked his whole life to earn a mandatory position and I will be doing everything in my power from a legal standpoint to protect my client’s rights.”
The belief is Golovkin wants an easy opponent for May 5th so that he won’t pit the Canelo fight at risk. Derevyanchenko is an excellent fighter, but there’s nothing for GGG to take the fight with the Ukrainian fighter.
The big question is will the IBF order Golovkin to defend against his mandatory challenger Derevyanchenko on less than four weeks’ notice? That would be a bit much. Usually, the sanctioning bodies order champions to defend against their mandatory challengers well before 4 weeks before a fight. If the IBF were to order GGG to defend his title on 3 ½ weeks’, it would be asking a lot of him. Will Golovkin agree to take that fight? If Golovkin vacates the IBF belt, then it’s a negative for Derevyanchenko and the IBF as well.
If Golovkin gives up the IBF belt, they could end up with a less popular fighter holding their title if Derevyanchenko wins the title. Would the IBF just give Derevyanchenko the belt or would they could order him to face the next highest contender willing to fight for the belt. I doubt that Golovkin would vacate the IBF title if the IBF forces his hand to defend against Derevyanchenko on May 5th, but it’s possible he might. Giving Golovkin only 1 month to prepare for Derevyanchenko’s fighting style is a rush job. If Golovkin gives up the IBF title, Derevyanchenko could wind up facing the likes of Jack Arnfield, Tureano Johnson or Rafael Bejaran for the belt. In that case, the IBF might as well give Derevyanchenko the title.
It’s unlikely the IBF will order Golovkin to defend against Derevyanchenko on short notice, but if they do, then he’ll likely work out a step aside fee for him. If that is rejected by Derevyanchenko’s management, then it’ll come down to whether Golovkin is willing to give up the IBF title. Golovkin has the punching power and the boxing skills to beat Derevyanchenko, but it would be a hard fight for him to take with less than a month’s notice. Derevyanchenko is more trouble than he’s worth. He doesn’t have a large fan base, so Golovkin won’t be able to count on him bringing in a lot of boxing fans to purchase tickets for his fight and there is no way that HBO would put a fight between the two of them on PPV.
Derevyanchenko is too much of an unknown for the fight to be worthy of PPV. I have a feeling that Golovkin just wants to take the fight with an easy replacement opponent on May 5th, and then fight Canelo in September, and possibly WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in December or in early 2019. That point, I suspect that Golovkin will vacate his middleweight titles if he’s victorious. I doubt that Golovkin will bother fighting Derevyanchenko ever, because there’s no upside in fighting him other than keeping the IBF title. I think Golovkin is looking to get the biggest fights available to him for the remainder of his career, and that means Canelo, George Groves or Callum Smith, and then possibly Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez.
Golovkin is probably wasting his time trying to unify the middleweight division, because it could force him to take smaller money fights against guys like Derevyanchenko and WBO belt holder Billy Joe Saunders. Those aren’t fights that the U.S boxing public is interested in seeing. Neither of those guys are well-known in the U.S with the casual boxing fans, and Golovkin can’t fight them on HBO PPV because they won’t sell.