Andre Rozier believes he found the secret to help his charge, middleweight contender Sergiy ‘The Technician’ Derevyanchenko withstand the punching power of Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin.
“You take your fighter, bang his head against a cinder block and let him know that his head is tough,” the Brooklyn-based trainer quipped of his pre-fight preparation for this weekend’s vacant middleweight title fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City (Saturday. DAZN, 9:00pm ET).
Of course, there is a far greater method to the madness behind preparing Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10KOs) for a bout where his fare more celebrated opponent comes in as a 4-1 betting favorite. Saturday’s main event will mark Golovkin’s first title fight since losing his slew of hardware to reigning World middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in their rematch last September.
The bout came just more than a month prior to Derevyanchenko—a 2008 Olympian for Ukraine who now lives and trains in Brooklyn—dropping a competitive split decision to career-long stablemate Daniel Jacobs in their vacant title fight last October at MSG’s Hulu Theater. Their clash provided a house divided, with Rozier working Jacobs’ corner, while Derevyanchenko taking instructions from assistant trainer Gary Stark Sr.
The team for the middleweight contender’s most recent start, a 12-round win over Germany’s Jack Culcay in their title eliminator this past April. The expectation was to next face Alvarez, only for the Mexican superstar to relinquish his title after failing to come to terms for his ordered mandatory title fight.
From there entered Golovkin (39-1-1, 35KOs), the next highest rated contender who returned to the win column with a 4th round knockout of Steve Rolls in June. Some have suggested the former middleweight titlist has begun to look his 37 years of age, but Derevyanchenko and his team aren’t buying it.
That said, there are certain tendencies they believe Golovkin still carries which can be exploited.
“You have to keep GGG uncomfortable,” insists Rozier, who was also in Jacobs’ corner for his narrow loss to Golovkin in this very venue in March 2017.
"We know GGG fires combinations in succession of three. It’s one-two-up or one-two-down. You have to make sure you’re not in the position to receive them, just keep him off balance.”
“Sergiy has some good whiskers, but we’re not going to be there to be absorbing punishment. There’s a reason why they call him ‘The Technician.’”
The idea of playing hit-and-don’t-get-hit works just fine with the title hopeful.
“I need to move a lot, I need to work behind my jab and I need to show him angles,” insists the 33-year old.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
