NEW YORK — Gennadiy Golovkin has flashed his cherub-like grin all fight week long, until facing off with Sergiy Derevyanchenko following their press conference Wednesday. That’s when his smile transformed into an icy stare very reminiscent of the longtime boogeyman of the middleweight division that has handed out 35 pulverizing knockouts.
Boxers usually don that kind of grim look during a faceoff, but GGG’s visage might be more telling. See, it wasn’t supposed to be Golovkin standing across from Derevyanchenko on the Madison Square Garden dais. It was supposed to be Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
The face of boxing failed to come up with a purse bid for his mandatory defense of the IBF middleweight title against Derevyanchenko and the governing body stripped him of the belt in August as a result. And that’s after GGG says Canelo spurned him out of a proposed trilogy fight during Mexican Independence Day weekend last month.
So, as he stands staring a hole through Derevyanchenko before their clash at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, and live on DAZN, Golovkin knows that he’s being tasked to essentially do Alvarez’s dirty work — albeit, with the vacant IBF title on the line.
This is GGG moving on from Canelo, not because he wants to, but because he’s being forced to.
The Mexican boxing sensation dug at his rival last week, telling DAZN that GGG “has nothing to offer me” and that feeling wouldn’t change if Golovkin snatches the IBF title this weekend. That’s some statement considering their two fights: a split draw that robbed Golovkin out of a clear win in September 2017 and a majority decision nod to Canelo in September 2018.
It’s not to say that a trilogy fight won’t happen. One can never say never in a boxing business where even grimy politics can be greased enough with Brinks trucks to make spite fade. But it’s not happening anytime soon and Golovkin isn’t waiting.
Having inked a lucrative six-fight deal with DAZN earlier this year, GGG’s future lies in his own hands and options are aplenty.
“There are great opportunities, a lot of great fighters and I’m looking at that as not only as a boxer, but a businessman as well,” Golovkin told an intimate group of reporters through an interpreter before the press conference Wednesday. “I have my own promotion company. We will be exploring opportunities and we will go from there.”
Matchroom Boxing president and Golovkin’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, tacked on that sentiment, essentially saying the world is the Kazakh warrior’s playground of possibilities following what’s expected to be a dominant showing Saturday night.
“We already have plans beyond in my head,” Hearn said of GGG’s blueprint moving forward. “The key as far as I’m concerned is to stay active, stay in control and to build your own destiny and legacy globally.
“Obviously, we have a great situation here with DAZN in America, we also have multiple options worldwide for Gennadiy to box around the world,” he continued. “I think that this fight is so important Saturday night for the career and future of Gennadiy that all that kind of stuff is kept behind closed doors until we present it to the team moving forward.”
If Golovkin defeats the rugged Derevyanchenko as anticipated, perhaps he’d look to unify world middleweight straps with either WBO champion Demetrius Andrade or WBC titleholder Jermall Charlo. The fact that Andrade also fights on DAZN and is promoted by Hearn would make “Boo Boo” the smoother match to make — at least on paper.
Earlier this summer, Andrade and Canelo were in reported conversations for a fight themselves, but because it didn’t happen, Andrade, too, feels spurned by Alvarez. In the past, Andrade has called out Golovkin as well, so them unifying with the former’s pure boxing style against the latter’s forward-fighting — in spite of Canelo — would be a must-see.
On Wednesday, Golovkin also mentioned that he’d be willing to move up to 168 pounds for a fight in the super middleweight division, where Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, Callum Smith and David Benavidez reign as champions. Like Andrade, Saunders and Smith fight on DAZN, with Hearn also promoting them. GGG has only fought in London once, so the fight-hungry English hosting him against either Saunders or Smith would make for an enticing option. Still, any such jump for Golovkin would be momentary.
“It would be a temporary move up because I’m a natural middleweight,” the 37-year-old GGG said. “Going to 168 would be going outside of my comfort zone.”
While it will take Golovkin getting past Derevyanchenko first to roll out and consider each option, he believes his rival Canelo went with the only choice he had left — in the form of moving up two weight classes to face Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight crown.
“I think that was his only option,” GGG said of the Kovalev clash, adding that Canelo either reneged on or avoided everything else.
“I don’t know who’s going to win,” he added grinning, “but I know Kovalev is gaining more from that fight than Canelo.”
There’s clearly no love lost, as the heated rivals go their separate ways. If they wind up meeting a third and final time, it will happen when it happens. Until then, one can conjure the red-headed boxer that makes Golovkin cringe and he’ll probably handle it like he did Wednesday.
“We have a lot of different things to talk about,” he offered. “We have a lot of interesting subjects, topics and you asking about Canelo tells something about you as journalists.
“Explore better options.”
Golovkin certainly will be trying to.