Sergey Derevyanchenko to meet with management in December to decide next fight

By Boxing News - 11/26/2019 - Comments

By Barry Holbrook: Sergiy Derevyanchenko will be meeting with his manager Keith Connolly and Al Haymon early next month to decide on his next opponent as well which network he’ll be fighting on, according to @MikeCoppinger. Derevyanchenko’s next fight will be in LATE 2020 rather than the first half of next year.

The former two-time middleweight world title challenger Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) is coming off of a grueling 12 round unanimous decision loss to Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin on October 5 in New York. It was a fight that had the vacant International Boxing Federation middleweight title at stake.

Sergiy still healing from cut sustained in GGG fight

Derevyanchenko, 34, suffered a bad cut over his right eye in the loss to GGG, and that could delay him returning to the ring. It’s unclear how long it’ll take before Derevyanchenko is freed up to fight. Considering how bad the cut was, it’s understandable why they would want to bring Derevyanchenko back in late 2020 for his next fight.

If the cut opens up again, it could be bad for Derevyanchenko if he’s in with a good opponent, who can take advantage of the situation. Additionally, Derevyanchenko took a lot of punishment from Golovkin in that fight. There’s that element as well. Although Golovkin took a lot of heavy shots too, he didn’t get cut, and he was getting hit with a lot of body punches.

“Keith Connolly tells The Athletic he’s set to meet with his fighter, Sergey Derevyanchenko, and Al Haymon in December to map out his future, including his next fight, platform and what big opponent he’ll target in late 2020,” said @MikeCoppinger.

Derevyanchenko’s loss to Golovkin was controversial

The 2008 Olympian Derevyanchenko gave Golovkin all he could handle in losing the fight by a controversial decision by the scores 115-112, 115-112, 114-113.  Boxing fans felt that Derevyanchenko, 34, had earned the decision with his performance with the way he outworked Golovkin, and they booed loudly when the results were read.

The judges sided with the more popular fighter Golovkin, and left Derevyanchenko with nothing to show for his courageous performance. Boxing News 24 had Derevyanchenko winning the fight 7 rounds to 5. #3 WBC, #7 IBF, #9 WBO Derevyanchenko was the better fighter, as well the busier guy. Sergiy might have scored a knockdown of Golovkin in the 5th if not for the referee Harvey Dock getting in the way when he had GGG hurt, and about to drop.

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With Golovkin moving on to defend his newly won IBF 160-lb title against Kamil Szeremeta in February, Derevyanchenko will be going in a different direction. If Golovkin wins that fight against Szeremeta, he’s expected to target a trilogy match against Saul Canelo Alvarez in September 2020. In a perfect world, Golovkin would give Derevyanchenko a rematch to clear up the controversy surrounding the results of their fight, but that’s not going to happen.

Golovkin is looking at his career from a business perspective, and he’s going after the bigger payday against Canelo. If GGG can’t get that fight, he’ll likely fight one of the super middleweight champions Callum Smith or Billy Joe Saunders. Both are good fighters, but horribly flawed.

There’s no word about the opponent for Derevyanchenko, but it’s expected to be a solid opponent.

These are likely possible options for Sergiy’s next fight:

  • Demetrius Andrade
  • Hugo Centeno, Jr.
  • Immanuwel Aleem
  • Brandon Adams
  • Matt Korobov
  • Maciej Sulecki