By Allan Fox: Gennady Golovkin weighed in at 165.9 pounds on Thursday for his 30-day weight check for his fight against a still to be determined opponent on May 5th at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. Golovkin’s opponent is still up on the air right now.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Council)
The Nevada State Athletic Commission rejected GGG’s promoter’s choice of 21-year-old junior middleweight contender Jaime Munguia on Thursdays, to Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan is currently seen as the frontrunner to get the fight. IBF mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko’s promoter Lou Dibella still hasn’t up hope to have his fighter get the fight with GGG.
Dibella wants the IBF to order the Golovkin to immediately face Derevyanchenko. It’s a long shot unfortunately. The IBF isn’t likely to order that fight with just 4 weeks to go before May 5th. For Golovkin, he won’t gain much from having Derevyanchenko as his opponent. He’s not a star in the U.S, and he won’t draw any more interest than O’Sullivan.
In fact, you can argue that Derevyanchenko might hurt ticket and PPV sales compared to O’Sullivan, because there’s a lot of Irish boxing fans in the U.S that would love to see a fight between GGG and an Irish fighter like O’Sullivan. The 5’9” Derevyanchenko isn’t quite as tall or as powerful as Golovkin, but he’s smart and he can do a lot of different things. It wouldn’t be an easy fight for Golovkin. He would have to stalk Derevyanchenko, and force him to slug it out.
Most of the time, the Ukrainian fighter likes to punch with his opponents, but when he’s met with strong resistance, as he was against Tureano Johnson, he’ll get on his bike and move around the ring and box. Derevyanchenko doesn’t have the hand speed that Golovkin had to deal with against Canelo, but he’s a tough fighter that would make it difficult for Golovkin. Golovkin would have to knock Derevyanchenko out early if he didn’t want the fight to be a grueling one like his fight with Kassim Ouma was in 2011. Golovkin hasn’t defended against his IBF mandatory for two years since his victory over Dominic Wade in 2016. If Golovkin doesn’t face Derevyanchenko on May 5th, then it’s likely that he won’t take care of this commitment until 2019, because Canelo Alvarez will almost surely be GGG’s opponent in September of this year.
:”Expedited negotiations should begin for a bout immediately between Mr. Golovkin and Mr. Derevyanchenko,” said Dibella’s attorney Alex Dombroff in a letter sent to the IBF asking them to order the fight against GGG via Yahoo Sports News. ”By immediately ordering that Mr. Golovkin satisfy his mandatory obligation by fighting Mr. Derevyanchenko, the IBF will not just be making the proper decision pursuant to its rules, but also shall ensure that its title and the boxers inn its ratings are not held hostage.”
Derevyanchenko would give Golovkin possibly a tougher fight than what he’d have gotten against Saul Canelo Alvarez, who pulled out of the fight this week. Golovkin would have to do things differently against Derevyanchenko in order to win. He couldn’t stay on the outside and jab hi the way he did against Canelo, Daniel Jacobs and David Lemieux. It would require more slugging from GGG to beat Derevyanchenko, and that of course would make it a hard fight for him.
Golovkin’s next opponent will undoubtedly be named soon, perhaps even on Friday. It’s important that the opponent be announced as soon as possible so that HBO and K2 Promotions can start marketing the fight. It would be wise for Golovkin to pick a fighter that is signed to a huge powerhouse promotion like Golden Boy, because that would help make the promotion a lot easier. I wouldn’t just be K2 and HBO that are marketing the fight.
It would be Golden Boy as well. It’s not a good deal for Golovkin to take on a tough fighter that could possibly beat him or wear him down. The fact is Golovkin hasn’t looked good in a fight since 2016 when he beat Dominic Wade by a 3rd round knockout. Golovkin has not looked great in his last three fights since then against Kell Brook, Daniel Jacobs and Canelo Alvarez. So while it’s important for Golovkin to get someone popular enough to help bring in a lot of PPV buys on HBO in his May 5th fight, it’s just not worth it to him to take on a good opponent.
Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol, and he’s looking at a probable suspension on April 18th when he meets with the Nevada State Athletic Commission in their hearing. Canelo did the wise thing in pulling out of his May 5th fight against Golovkin, even though he really wanted that fight so he could prove to the boxing public that he’s the better fighter. Golovkin and Canelo fought to a 12 round draw last September.