Gennadiy Golovkin must beat Ryota Murata in their rescheduled fight on April 9th live on DAZN to get the chance to fight Canelo Alvarez in their long-awaited trilogy match on September 17th. Golovkin-Murata will be taking place in Saitama, Japan.
Golovkin had previously scheduled to fight the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Murata on December 29th in Saitama, but the fight had to be postponed due to a COVID-19 travel ban.
GGG and Canelo agreed to a deal with Matchroom Boxing and DAZN a week ago to fight on the Mexican Independence Day holiday on September 17th, as long as they win their interim fights. Canelo must beat WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th.
It’s far from a certainty that Canelo beats Bivol because this is an excellent fighter who can box, move and punch. Bivol checks all boxes in having the elements needed to defeat Canelo.
What Bivol has going against him is that he’ll be fighting Canelo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and that’s a venue where he may need a knockout to win.
Seemingly each time Canelo has fought at the T-Mobile Arena, controversy has followed.
Assuming Canelo (57-1-1, 39 KOs) beats Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) and Gololovkin defeats the 35-year-old Murata, he’ll move up to 168 and challenge the Mexican star for his undisputed championship.
Maybe Golovkin will be more assertive at 168 and will fight Canelo better than he did in their rematch in 2018. Golovkin lost because he allowed Canelo to back him up the entire fight and was unable to stand his ground.
For boxing fans that remember the fierce reputation that Golovkin had during his best years, it was disappointing to see him being backed up by Canelo.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn says Canelo vs. Golovkin III is the biggest fight in boxing. It’s debatable whether that’s the case any longer. It’s a fight that no longer is that attractive, thanks to Golovkin playing it safe in the last four years,s fighting rarely and only against beatable opposition.
It’s been four years since Canelo fought Golovkin a second time in 2018, and since then, GGG has fought only three times.
The first sparring session is over, keep working 🦾 pic.twitter.com/E8pVNh75Yp
— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) March 2, 2022
Rather than keeping himself in the public eye and creating interest in a trilogy match with Canelo, Golovkin has played it safe, fighting non-risky opposition.
While fans have hoped for Golovkin to face talented fighters like Demetrius Andrade, Jermall Charlo, or even Erislandy Lara, he’s gone in the other direction fighting these guys in his last three contests.
- Steve Rolls
- Kamil Szeremeta
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko
Talent-wise, Ryota Murata fits in with those three fighters, even though he’s the WBA 160lb champion. He’s a champion because he beat Hassan N’Dam.
Fans can only hope that nothing happens to get in the way of the Golovkin vs. Murata fight on April 9th, but that potentially results in Canelo going in a different direction in September.
It’s a fight that Golovkin, 39, is believed to be getting paid a lot of money fighting the Japanese star Murata, but it’s a fight that fans have lost interest in seeing.
Golovkin must beat Murata to get the trilogy match against Canelo Alvarez that he’s been waiting for since 2018.
Murata hasn’t fought since way back in 2019, and he’s never beaten anyone of note during his career. The World Boxing Association let Murata hold onto his WBA 160-lb title despite his last fight 2 1/2 years ago.
With that amount of time between flights, it’s fortunate that Murata hasn’t been stripped of his WBA title for failing to defend it on an annual basis.
The Top Rank promoted Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) holds the WBA middleweight title, which he’ll have on the line when he faces IBF 160lb champion Golovkin in a unification fight.
It’s hard to believe Golovkin has burned through a year and a half of his career waiting for the Murata fight and not fighting ANYBODY during that time.
Golovkin could have fought Demetrius Andrade, Jermall Charlo, Jaime Munguia, or Chris Eubank Jr. while waiting for his fight with Murata, but those guys would have been risky.
It’s believed that Golovkin hasn’t wanted to take any risks since 2018 for fear of losing and never getting the third fight with Canelo.
Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) and Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) were supposed to fight last December, but the match-up was postponed due to the travel ban in Japan.
Murata isn’t a well-known fighter with casual boxing fans, unfortunately, and the people that do know of him remember his losses to Hassan N’Dam and Rob Brant.
“The Gennadiy Golovkin-Ryota Murata middleweight title unification is set for April 9 in Saitama, Japan, on DAZN. If GGG wins and Canelo Alvarez defeats Dmitriy Bivol on May 7, they’ll meet in a trilogy bout for the undisputed super middleweight title on Sept. 17,” said Mike Coppinger.
