By Sean Jones: Gennady Golovkin will be fighting it out with 2008 Olympian Sergiy Derevyanchenko in 23 days from now on October 5 in a battle for the vacant IBF 160-lb title at Madison Square Garden in New York. Golovkin (39-1, 35 KOs) put on a training clip in his camp, and he looks like he’s hard at work getting prepared for his tough fight.
This will be GGG’s second fight with his new trainer Johnathon Banks. Golovkin replaced longtime trainer Abel Sanchez with Banks this year, and the results have been positive thus far. The real test of whether Banks is the right guy for Golovkin will come on October 5th when he battles Derevyanchenko for the IBF belt. If Golovkin fails to get the win, then it’ll be time to quickly move on to someone new.
This is the second fight of a six-bout contract for Golovkin with DAZN. In his rematch match against Canadian Steve Rolls, he smashed him in 4 rounds. GGG took it easy on the 35-year-old Rolls in the first three rounds, throwing very few punches. In the 4th, Golovkin quickly dropped Rolls face first on the canvas with a left hook. Rolls was too hurt to make it back to his feet to continue fighting.
2⃣3⃣ days 💥 pic.twitter.com/QPUiCqnmtv
— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) September 12, 2019
Derevyanchenko could give Golovkin a tough test
There are a lot of boxing fans that think Golovkin (39-1, 35 KOs) wanted no part of facing Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10 KOs) last year when he was his mandatory. Golovkin needs to put some pressure on Derevyanchenko, because the Ukrainian likes to box his opponents.
Daniel Jacobs beat Derevyanchenko by going after him, and hitting him with fast combinations. Golovkin can’t win with speed and size the way Jacobs did, but he’s got the power to hurt Derevyanchenko. He’s got to be busier than he was in his recent matches against Rolls and Saul Canelo Alvarez.
Derevyanchenko, 33, has taken a lot of punishment in his fights against Tureano Johnson, Jacobs and Jack Culcay. He beat Johnson and Culcay, but they were far from easy wins. Derevyanchenko knew he’d been in a fight afterwards. Culcay and Tueano put hands on Derevyanchenko, and forced him to box instead of slugging.
Golovkin is going to need to press Derevyanchenko if he wants to win this fight, because it could get out-boxed if he lets Sergiy stay on the outside the way he likes to do. Golovkin has to back Derevyanchenko up against the ropes, and look to take him out with a head shot. This is a good fight for Golovkin to practice his body punching. He’s going to need to be able to throw to the body if he wants to beat Canelo in a trilogy fight.