NEW YORK — Whether Gennadiy Golovkin was expecting it or not, he knows what it's like now to have the "Big Drama Show" brought to him at Madison Square Garden.
Sergiy Derevyanchenko gave GGG all he could handle Saturday night at MSG before judges scored it a unanimous decision (115-112, 115-112, 114-113) in favor of Golovkin, who was crowned the new IBF world middleweight champion with anything but an easy path to the title.
Golovkin dropped Derevyanchenko with a right on top of the head during the first round. In the second, Derevyanchenko suffered a nasty gash over his right eye that appeared to be the result of a GGG left hook, but was ruled to be from an accidental headbutt. But instead of Derevyanchenko reeling, he began digging into GGG and back into the fight the hard way with a gutsy performance.
"The cut really changed the fight," Derevyanchenko said. "I couldn’t see at times. And he was targeting the eye. But no excuses, it is what it is, I was trying my best."
Using his busy motor and a high volume of punches, Derevyanchenko took it to Golovkin on the inside and even had the Kazakh warrior hurt at times over the duration of the bout.
During the 10th round, Derevyanchenko unloaded on GGG, using every punch in his arsenal to hurt Golovkin, who even grabbed and held onto the Ukrainian to avoid suffering more damage.
As Derevyanchenko took the fight to Golovkin, there were moments that GGG either delivered with enough power punches to take the round or looked every bit of 37 years old, with "Father Time" breathing down his head and neck.
While it was far from the "Big Drama Show" that GGG was expecting to produce, it was enough for Golovkin to escape MSG as a two-time world middleweight champion.
"Right now it’s bad day for me, it’s a huge day for Sergiy, his team," Golovkin said. "This is huge experience for me. Right now I know what I need exactly. I lost a little bit of focus. Sergiy was ready, I really respect him. He showed me such a big heart. I told him, Sergiy, this is best fight for me. It’s a huge experience. It’s maximum destroy. I just respect his team."
WBO world middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade told media members that "we're going to make it happen," referring to what would be a title unification bout against GGG. With both champs fighting on DAZN and being represented by Matchroom Boxing president and promoter Eddie Hearn, it's certainly possible.
Meanwhile, Derevyanchenko's promoter Lou DiBella held court on press row and said "if GGG didn't have the chin of God, he would have got knocked out," insisting that his charge should have been on the receiving end of the decision.
Here's a round-by-round breakdown of how GGG vs. Derevyanchenko went .