MDP Live - Promoter Eddie Hearn said a duel between IBF and IBO world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and WBA title holder Ryota Murata would take place in the first quarter of 2022.
The schedule has changed from what was previously scheduled in Japan in December 2021. "It looks like it will be rescheduled for March or April 2022," Hearn said in an interview with iFL TV, recently.
For Gennady Golovkin, the match against Murata will be the first after defeating Kamil Szeremeta at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, last December 18.
That is, Golovkin has been absent in the ring for more than a year. This makes the 39-year-old boxer's popularity increasingly dim. Golovkin's desire for a duel against Murata is none other than collecting the championship belt at the end of his career as a professional boxer.
Golovkin is a former WBC, WBA Super, and IBO title holder. However, all of these titles were lost after losing to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in the second duel at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, September 15, 2018.
Since then, the boxer from Kazakhstan has tried to recover by winning the last three matches. The first opponent he beat was Steve Rolls at Madison Square Garden, New York, June 8, 2019.
The victory led Golovkin to a duel against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in the race for the vacant IBF and IBO titles. As a result, Golovkin won on points in the match that took place at Madison Square on October 5, 2019.
After that, he managed to defend the title after defeating Kamil Szeremeta who was present as the IBF mandatory challenger. Overall, Golovkin currently has a record 41 (36 KOs) wins, one loss and one draw.
Indeed, since the defeat to Canelo in the second duel, Golovkin wanted a trilogy fight. However, this hope seems difficult to realize considering that Canelo himself has other ambitions, namely to become world champion in a higher division. In fact, the boxer from Mexico is planning to move up to cruiser class (90.7kg).
In other words, Golovkin now can only wait and fight with the best opponents in the middle class for the rest of his career.
The match that lies ahead against Murata is one of Golovkin's steps to return to glory. Murata has so far bagged a record 16 (13 KOs) and lost twice.
He won the WBA world boxing title after defeating Hassan N'Dam N'jikam in a rematch that took place in Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan on October 22, 2017. After that, he briefly lost the title after losing to Rob Brant at the Park Theater, Las Vegas. Vegas, United States (USA), October 20, 2018.
However, Murata managed to win back in a rematch at the EDION Arena Osaka, Osaka, Japan on July 12, 2019. After that, he managed to defend the title once against Steven Butler in Yokohama, December 23, 2019. The duel was also the last one before the end. against Golovkin.
