Former contender for the middleweight title, Ukrainian Sergey Derevyanchenko shared his memories of the fight with the Kazakh star Gennady Golovkin.
Let us remember that their fight took place in October 2019 and ended with Golovkin’s victory by unanimous decision.
— This fight was very difficult emotionally and physically. From the first second until the last 12th round, this fight was incredibly difficult.
— You took many blows from Gennady. What can you say about his striking power?
- Yes, I felt his blows very well, I felt that he was a puncher. Each of his blows, even when he hit lightly, was clearly felt. When I took unaccented blows to block, I immediately thought: “Wow, it’s better not to get hit by strong blows.”
— Immediately after the fight you started talking about revenge. Why didn't it take place?
— I think, and we then saw this, his team had a different plan. They wanted to go for a third fight with Canelo. They needed to pick up the IBF belt in order to then fight Alvarez. And, as we see, this fight took place, and Golovkin quit boxing. He hasn't officially said that he's retired, but I think he is.
— So this was their strategy?
- Yes exactly. Then I was a mandatory challenger for the IBF title, we negotiated for a long time with Canelo’s team, but we didn’t reach an agreement, they took away his belt and Golovkin and I were forced to fight for the vacant title.
— Were there any substantive conversations about revenge at all?
— There was something, but I don’t know if there were specific negotiations. Most likely it wasn’t.
