WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata predicts a victory over IBF champion Gennadiy Golovkin this Saturday night in their unification fight on DAZn on April 9 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) will need to fight at a much higher level than what he’s shown in the past to defeat the superstar Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) because he’s struggled against fringe level fighters.
In this fight, one thing that could hurt the 36-year-old Murata is his inactivity. He hasn’t fought in 2 1/2 years, and that’s a long time to be out of the ring to be coming back against a fighter like Golovkin.
The Japanese star Murata will have a huge crowd cheering him to victory on Saturday night against the 40-year-old Golovkin, which will give him a big boost. At 100% total capacity, the Saitama Super Arena seats 36,500 fans, and most of them will be rooting for Murata.
Golovkin and Murata had been scheduled to meet last December, but the 160-lb unification fight had to be postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions, moving the contest to April 9th.
“It is an honor to share the ring with the great champion Gennadiy Golovkin,” said WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata to Japan Forward about his unification match against IBF champion Gennadiy Golovkin this Saturday.
“I am extremely pleased to be part of this historic middleweight title unification fight here in Japan. On April 9th, victory will be mine and Japan will have a unified world middleweight champion,: said a confident Murata.
Golovkin needs a win over Murata to put himself in a position to face Canelo Alvarez in a trilogy match on September 17th. Canelo has to win his fight against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th, and that’s not a sure thing win for the Mexican star.
Golovkin has dialed in for the Murata fight for almost two years, waiting and waiting for a battle that means very little to the average boxing fan.
The Murata fight will obviously pay well for Golovkin, but this isn’t the guy that fans wanted to see the Kazanstan fighter battle. They would have preferred that Golovkin face one of these talented fighters while waiting for the Canelo clash in September:
- Demetrius Andrade
- Jermell Charlo
- David Benavidez
- Chris Eubank Jr
- Jaime Munguia
- Zhanibek Alimkhanuly
Murata lost to Hassan N’Dam and Rob Brant, who took advantage of his aggressiveness. Murata avenged his losses in the rematches by knocking out both fighters and attacking them relentlessly.
