Gennadiy Golovkin is once again a middleweight champion, but he had to walk through hell to get there. Late on Saturday night, he won a hard-fought unanimous decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko by scores of 114-113, 115-112 and 115-112 to capture the vacant IBF belt.
“I told you, he’s a very tough guy,” Golovkin said in the ring after his win. “This is huge experience for me. Right now, I understand I need more. … I feel this was not an easy fight for me. This was a tough fight.”
It was a difficult victory, but a victory nonetheless, which is what Golovkin needed as he looks forward to a potential trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez. The two fighters have dismissed each other and that possibility in the past few months, but it’s the biggest fight out there for either man, and in the end everyone expects money to talk — despite whatever personal problems exist between them. Read more