Face to Face: Gennady Golovkin vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko NYC media workout

By Boxing News - 10/02/2019 - Comments

By Robert Addams: Sergiy ‘The Technician’ Derevyanchenko and Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin met on Wednesday in their New York City media workout to talk about their bout on Saturday night on DAZN at Madison Square. Neither fighter had much to say to try and rile each other up. They both played it nice, which is unfortunate because the fight needs some energy to get fans interested.

Golovkin the favorite over Derevyanchenko

During the face off, Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs) looked considerably bigger both in height and size than the 5’9″ Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10 KOs). However, that doesn’t mean Golovkin will win the fight. He lost to an even shorter fighter in 5’8″ Saul Canelo Alvarez last year, and we could see the same thing in this fight.

Golovkin is a 5:1 favorite over the 33-year-old Derevyanchenko with the odds-makers.  That may not be enough for GGG to win the fight though. This a tough opponent with a superb trainer in Andre Rozier.

That’s the same guy that prepared Daniel Jacobs for his match against Golovkin in 2017. Golovkin just barely defeated Jacobs in a close 12 round decision. To this day, a lot of boxing fans believe that Jacobs was given a bad deal with the judging for that fight.

“My opponent is so great so strong. Everybody is ready,” said Golovkin about Derevyanchenko during Wednesday’s news conference in New York.

Derevyanchenko = BAD style match-up for Gennady

Golovkin may have made a mistake in selecting Derevyanchnko as the opponent for him to fight. Derevyanchenko is a very good inside fighter, and he likes to smother his opponents in close. If you look at Derevyanchenko’s fight last year against Daniel Jacobs, he closed the distance quickly each time against the ‘Miracle Man.’

GGG can’t fight on the inside like Derevyanchenko

Once inside, Derevyanchenko hit Jacobs with short combinations, and kept him from being able to get full leverage on his punches. If not for Jacobs having better than average inside fighting ability, Derevyanchenko would have beaten him.

Golovkin doesn’t possess nearly the same inside fighting skills as Derevyanchenko, and he’s going to be forced to try and get to the outside to get his shots off. Derevyanchenko won’t likely let Golovkin do that.

Unless GGG has improved his inside game, he’s going to get worked over by Derevyanchenko for 12 rounds and embarrassed on Saturday.

Sergiy’s trainer Andre Rozier appeared to be giving misleading information this week by saying that Derevyanchenko will be boxing in circles from the outside against GGG. That’s not likely what he’s going to do. Derevyanchenko will almost surely take the fight to the inside, and keep it there against Golovkin all night long. Golovkin’s power is considerably less when he’s in close than when he’s given distance to get maximum power on his punches. Canelo Alvarez knew that, and that’s why he stayed on the inside against Golovkin in their rematch.

Derevyanchenko ready to “rock and roll” on Saturday

“I’ve had a phenomenal camp leading up to this fight, and I’m extremely motivated,” said Derevyanchenko. “On Saturday night, I’m ready for rock and roll.”

Derevyanchenko sounds like he’s ready to make it a war on Saturday night. He did a fantastic job against Daniel Jacobs in his fight last year. Even though Derevyanchenko didn’t get the victory, he neutralized Jacobs’ offense, and fought well enough to deserve the win.

Rozier: Golovkin vs. Dereyanchenko will go 12 rounds

“Sergiy is a technician inside the ring,” said trainer Rozier to Fighthub. “He doesn’t come right at you. He boxes in a circle around you, and we want him to do what he does best. That’s what he does best. When he meets elite guys, it’s going to be 12 rounds,” said Rozier about Golovkin. “He went 12 with Danny [Jacobs], and he went 12 with Canelo both times. Sergiy [Derevyanchenko] is an elite athlete.

This is going to go 12 rounds. So he’s [Golovkin] going to have to deal with that once again. It’s coming that way, and I think Sergiy is going to show the world how special he is. Even when we’re victorious, I’m going to like him [Golovkin] as much as I do now. He’s [Derevyanchenko] is going to win just by being the Technician. It’s going to be 12 rounds of articulation. We’re going to be boxing at our best. That’s what they do,” said Rozier.

Derevyanchenko will stay in close against GGG

If the Golovkin-Derevyanchenko fight goes 12 rounds, then it’s come down to which of the two impresses the judges more. Some boxing fans believe that Golovkin will get the edge even if the fight isn’t close, but this writer doesn’t believe that.

Derevyanchenko has the ability to defeat Golovkin in a clear cut fashion if he stays in close, and works him over the way Canelo did in their rematch. Using using his inside game, Russian Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov defeated Golovkin in the final of the 2004 Olympics.

Gaydarbekov was no match for Golovkin when there was distance between the two fighters, but he made sure that he kept the fight on the inside as much as possible. It would have been an easy victory for Golovkin if had any kind of ability fight in close, but he didn’t.

The Russian fighter took advantage of that. Now we’re going to see Derevyanchenko do the exact same thing that Gaydarbekov did by working Golovkin over in close for the entire match.

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