By Sean Jones: Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin has started training camp for his unification fight against Ryota Murata. On Tuesday, the IBF middleweight champion Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) revealed on social media that his rescheduled clash against WBA 160-lb champion Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) would be taking place in early April in Japan.
Golovkin, 39, will have a date for the fight soon. He was supposed to have fought Murata in December in Japan, but travel restrictions got in the way of the unification bout from taking place then.
Now that the fight is no longer being impeded, Golovkin is training hard to get this match done so that he can move on to bigger things in 2022. The only fight that boxing fans want to see, Canelo Alvarez vs. Golovkin III, finally appears to be on the verge of happening.
Canelo is expected to sign a two-fight deal with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing to fight WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th and then Golovkin on September 17th.
Both fights are on Mexican holidays, so they’re going to be watched by a massive amount of boxing fans.
Happy to be back at training camp and to see my team. Hope that a date for the unification fight with Ryota Murata rescheduled for early April will be announced soon. I’m looking forward to traveling to Japan and to more BIG things in 2022 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/iAEo1wUhmJ
— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) February 16, 2022
Murata hasn’t fought in over two years since 2019, and we don’t know what he’s going to look like in April when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin.
In Murata’s last fight against little-known Canadian fighter Steven Butler in December 2019, he got hit a lot. Luckily for Murata, he didn’t have to worry about the power of Butler because he had none.
Surprisingly, the World Boxing Association has chosen to allow Murata to sit on his title for 2+ years without stripping him.
If Murata ends up pulling out of the fight with Golovkin, we’ll see if the WBA continues to be patient with him sitting on their title without defending it.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Golovkin does to Canelo in their trilogy match in September.
Assuming Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) doesn’t lose his nerve and choose not to sign the two-fight deal for the Bivol and Golovkin fights, we’re going to see a real barnburner between him and GGG.
Golovkin will need to go up to 168 for the Canelo fight, making him stronger. In GGG’s last several battles, he’d looked drained during fight ween in making weight.
Golovkin didn’t look well in making weight for his fights with Kamil Szeremeta, Steve Rolls, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Vanes Martirosyan, or his rematch with Canelo.
Canelo’s significant drop-off in his work rate will put him at the mercy of Golovkin because the Mexican star loads up on occasional punches and no longer shows the ability to throw more than a small handful of shots each round.
Canelo has aged to the point where he throws only a small number of shots each round. Canelo has gotten away with his low work rate due to his opposition being weak champions from England and Tennessee.
Golovkin will outwork Canelo and land the harder shots because of his superior power. Given that Canelo tested positive for the banned PED clenbuterol in 2018, it’s crucial that drug testing be implemented early in his camp to make sure he doesn’t eat any tainted meat again.
We’d hate to see Canelo getting popped again for clenbuterol for eating beef in Mexico. That’s why it’s important to have testing done throughout the training camp.
Many boxing fans believe that Golovkin deserves to win both fights, particularly the first one. Golovkin earned at least a draw in the rematch due to Canelo gassing out after six rounds and getting outworked for the entire second half.
Without Canelo getting a knockdown in the first six rounds, he shouldn’t have been given a decision victory because he clearly lost rounds 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.
Like in the first fight, Canelo was red in the face and exhausted after six rounds and eating the shots from Golovkin.
