By Sean Jones: The International Boxing Federation has granted IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin an exception to defend his title against voluntary challenger Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) on May 5 instead of against his IBF mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs). However, the IBF is saying that Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) must face Derevyanchenko next if he gets past Martirosyan, according to Dan Rafael. That requirement will make it tough for Golovkin, because he plans on fighting a rematch against Saul Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) on September 15. Golovkin will have a very fast turnaround from fighting Derevyanchenko in late July or early August, and then coming back to fight Canelo a month or two later on September 15. It works perfectly for Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy, because it increases their chance of winning. If Golovkin is depleted from having fought a war against Derevyanchenko, then Canelo can take advantage of that, because he’s younger and he’ll rested from his 1-year layoff from boxing. Canelo hasn’t fought since September 2017.
It might be a mistake for Golovkin to hold onto his IBF title if he’s only going to have 1 to 2 months to recover from the Derevyanchenko fight before he has to fight Canelo in September.
The IBF directors agreed to give Golovkin the exception to let him fight Martirosyan on May 5, but he had to agree to a number of conditions. One of those conditions is that Golovkin must face Derevyanchenko within 90 days of his May 5th fight against Martirosyan, according to Dan Rafael. In other words, Golovkin has until August 3, 2018 to fight Derevyanchenko. If GGG doesn’t fight him by that time, he’ll be stripped of his IBF belt. That’s a huge positive for Derevyanchenko, because if not for Canelo pulling out of the May 5 fight, he might have had to wait until September or possibly until 2019 if GGG had chosen to fight WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in September or October.
Derevyanchenko will get a title shot against Golovkin by no later than August 3 and that’s if he doesn’t lose to Martirosyan or vacate his IBF title before that. There’s very little chance that Golovkin will vacate his IBF title, because he wants to unify the middleweight division. It’ll be up to Derevyanchenko, 32, to prove that he has enough talent to beat Golovkin.
Derevyanchenko’s management likely never expected Golovkin to agree to fight them on short notice on May 5, but by them acting like they wanted that fight, they forced his hand to ask the IBF for an exception. If the IBF had denied the exception, then they would have had to strip Golovkin of his IBF title, because it was clear that he was going to take the fight with Martirosyan no matter what. If the IBF had stripped Golovkin of his title, then Derevyanchenko would have been in a great position to win the vacant belt by fighting one of the contenders in the IBF’s rankings. The way things are now, Derevyanchenko will get the fight against Golovkin and a chance to unseat him before he fights Canelo in a rematch later this year in September.
The only downside of this for Derevyanchenko is he now has to actually fight Golovkin, which might not be such a good thing for him, because he’s never shown the kind of talent that would suggest that he can beat him. If Golovkin destroys Derevyanchenko, then that’s it. Derevyanchenko will have had his one shot, because he’s not likely going to do well against the murder’s punchers like Jermall Charlo and Daniel Jacobs. It’s too bad Derevyanchenko didn’t have to fight any of them to earn his IBF mandatory spot.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loefler gave the IBF a $20,000 fee so that the sanctioning body could consider the request for an exception to fight Martirosyan instead of Derevyanchenko, according to Dan Rafael. In the end, the IBF approved the exception. Golovkin gets an arguably easier fight against Martirosyan on May 5, and Derevyanchenko has to wait a little longer. None of this would be necessary if Golovkin wasn’t so focused on winning all 4 division titles at middleweight. Things would be so much easier if Golovkin held onto just one world title, because then he could fight whoever he pleases most of the time.
The way it’s setup now, Golovkin will soon need to defend against not only his IBF mandatory Derevyanchenko, but also his WBA mandatory, which is likely going to be Daniel Jacobs if he beats Maciej Sulecki this Saturday night, and then his WBC mandatory Jermall Charlo. Those are 3 VERY tough opponents that Golovkin will need to face that he wouldn’t have to fight if he wasn’t hung on unifying the middleweight division. Golovkin will need to beat Saul Canelo Alvarez, his WBC mandatory in September, and then defeat WBO 160lb. champion Billy Joe Saunders at some point in 2019 to unify the division. Saunders is a purely defensive fighter who focused almost exclusively on making his opponents miss and look bad.
For Golovkin to fight Derevyanchenko next, he would need to face him in June or July. That’s not much time for Golovkin to rest up from the Martirosyan fight on May 5 to get ready to face Derevyanchenko in June or July. Likewise, Golovkin won’t have much time to rest after the Derevyanchenko fight, if he wins it, before having to face Canelo Alvarez on September 15. If Golovkin suffers a cut or some other type of injury in the Martirosyan or Derevyanchenko fights, it’ll make it tough on him.
The IBF chose not to sanction the Golovkin vs. Martirosyan fight due to it not involving their IBF mandatory challenger. The IBF could have played hardball and stripped Golovkin, but they chose not to. You can guess why. If the No.1 contender in the IBF’s rankings was a highly popular PPV fighter, it might have been a different story. Derevyanchenko is a virtual unknown as far as the casual boxing fans go.
Derevyanchenko’s management had tried hard to get him in as Golovkin’s opponent for May 5 after Canelo abruptly pulled out of the fight two weeks ago. Derevyanchenko’s promoters didn’t care that he was going to be put in a tough position in facing Golovkin on short notice. They felt that it was worth it, and that their fighter could beat GGG. There was no interest on Golovkin’s team’s part in taking the fight with Derevyanchenko on short nptice. They don’t mind that Golovkin fights Derevyanchenko. They just didn’t like the idea of taking the fight on 3 weeks’ notice.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler then asked the IBF for exception, and after weeks of them mulling it over, they finally decided in his favor to allow Golokvin to bypass the fight with Derevyanchenko. It was a smart move on the IBF’s part, because if they had stripped the highly popular Golovkin of his IBF title, they’d likely have ended up with a far less popular champion in Derevyanchenko.
The 2012 Olympian from Ukraine does not have the same exciting fighting style as Golovkin nor does he possess the same kind of punching power. As such, the IBF would have wound up with a not too thrilling replacement for Golovkin as their champion if they’d stripped him and had Derevyanchenko fight for the belt.
Golovkin, 36, will NOT have his IBF middleweight title on the line for the Martirosyan fight on May 5. It’ll just be his WBA and WBC 160 lb. belts that will be up for grabs. It’s not a big deal for Golovkin, and likely not an issue for Martirosyan as well. Golovkin wants to stay busy with his career and not have to sit idle for 1-year while he waits for Canelo to finish his 6-month suspension.
Golovkin has already had to wait 8 months to fight in May, because Canelo felt he needed a long, long rest after his fight with GGG last September. Canelo only fights 2 times per year on the Mexican holidays. He doesn’t feel that it’s necessary for him to fight more than twice a year.
The 31-year-old Martirosyan is the substitute for Canelo Alvarez, who couldn’t take the fight against Triple G due to his 2 positive tests for clenbuterol. Golovkin will fight Martirosyan on May 5 on HBO at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Canelo-Golovkin was going to be on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. When Canelo pulled out of the fight, Golovkin had to move to regular HBO once Martirosyan was found as the replacement. Canelo cannot fight because of a 6-month suspension given to him by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as part of the penalty handed down from his positive tests for clenbuterol on February 17 and February 20.
The reasons for the IBF now giving permission for their IBF 160 lb. title to be on the line for Golovkin’s May 5 fight is because of these issues:
• Martirosyan is not a middleweight. He fights at 154. Martirosyan will be moving up a weight class to fight GGG at 160 on May 5
• Martirosyan hasn’t fought in 2 years
• Martirosyan is coming off of a defeat in his last fight in 2016. He’s lost 2 out of his last 3 fights
Martirosyan has a lot of things going against him as far as him being a suitable replacement opponent for Golovkin. The one thing he does have is a name. Martirosyan is well known in Southern California, and that should help sell tickets to the StubHub Center for Golovkin.