Gennady Golovkin: record, next fight and profile →
The next fight for Ryota Murata is by far the biggest of his boxing lifetime since capturing Olympic Gold in London nearly ten years ago. Just don’t tell that to the reigning WBA middleweight titlist.
Gennadiy Golovkin will turn 40 on Friday and has boxed only one time in the past 30 months. The IBF middleweight champion therefore feels as though the last thing he should do is assess Ryota Murata based on the two upset defeats the Japanese star surprisingly suffered in May 2017 and October 2018. Golovkin has sparred against Murata, too, thus he is well aware that the WBA “super” middleweight champion is better than he showed when he lost a 12-round split decision to Hassan N’Dam and a 12-round unanimous decision to Rob Brant.
Fight week is in full swing and throughout Japan, Gennadiy "GGG" Golovkin is being hailed as the biggest name to enter a ring in Japan since heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
It has been more than two years since Ryota Murata has been able to soak in the ambience that comes with a big fight night. A career-long 28-month inactive stretch will come to an end once Tokyo’s Murata (16-2, 13KOs) returns to the ring this Saturday. The 2012 Olympic Gold medalist and reigning WBA “Super” middleweight titlist could not have picked a more appropriate fight for the occasion, as he faces Kazakhstan’s Gennadiy Golovkin (41-1-1, 36KOs) in a WBA/IBF unification bout in front of a sellout crowd at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata believes his upcoming opponent, IBF/IBO champion Gennadiy Golovkin, is past his best. The two champions will collide in a unification showdown on Saturday night in Japan.
Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom believes IBF, IBO middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin is taking a very risky fight when he goes up against WBA champion Ryota Murata in a high stakes unification.
Abel Sanchez, former trainer of IBF, IBO middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin, trained the big puncher for his two fights with Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo Alvarez.
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - No matter how you slice it, Gennadiy Golovkin had a helluva run. He was the consensus boogeyman of the middleweight division for several years, titillated premium cable audiences with a prodigious KO streak and earned himself positive mentions in sentences alongside household 160-pound names of the recent past like Hagler and Hopkins.
Gennadiy "GGG" Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs), from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, brought the Big Drama Show and his IBF and IBO world titles to Japan last week. Golovkin has crossed the U.S. and the Pacific Ocean to face two-time WBA middleweight champion and Japan's national hero Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) in a long-awaited world title unification fight.
Gennadiy Golovkin would’ve preferred much more activity than he has had since his brutal battle with Sergiy Derevyanchenko in October 2019.