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| Photo: Scott Levy MSG Photos |
Golovkin seemed to be detached from the fight even as he prepared in his dressing room and during the fight, DAZN was reporting that Golovkin had been ill and may not have been at peak form.
An illness may have been involved, but don't allow it to take away from the tremendous effort from Dereyvanchenko, who lost his second close decision for the vacant IBF title, having lost a split decision to Daniel Jacobs for the title after it had been stripped from Golovkin.
The evening started strong for Golovkin with the first-round knockdown and in then the second round, a left hand ripped a bad cut over the right eye of Dereyvanchenko in a cut that could have stopped the fight, had the corner of Dereyvanchenko not been able to patch their fighter together enough to continue.
The ridiculous part was the decision by referee Harvey Dock to rule that the cut was caused by a headbutt when replays clearly showed that there was no headbutt at all.
New York does not use replays for such decisions and had the fight needed to be stopped, the fight would have been decided on the scorecards rather than Golovkin ruled the rightful victor.
Thankfully, that didn't happen and fans were rewarded with an excellent battle that saw Dereyvanchenko landed more punches than GGG over the course of the fight, was able to keep Golovkin a step behind and in what was a key in the fight- used his jab to not only stop Golovkin from using his jab, but back Golovkin up, which rarely has happened in his career.
I had Dereyvanchenko ahead after ten rounds, but in two action rounds, I thought Golovkin won the final two rounds to win by one point.
Dereyvanchenko's loss to Golovkin was eerily similar to his loss to Daniel Jacobs- both fights were 114-113 on my card for the eventual winner, in both fights Dereyvanchenko suffered flash knockdowns in the first round, which would cost him a draw (on my card) and in both fights, Dereyvanchenko hurt his opponent badly (against Golovkin, it was the fifth round, against Jacobs it was the second round), but could not score a knockdown to even the lost point from his knockdown.
Still, the difference was that Dereyvanchenko was doing this against the great Gennady Golovkin, not just the very good Daniel Jacobs.
In the end, a rematch would seem to be in order after Golovkin seemed to have the edge by being the 'name fighter' after being on the other side of that coin against Canelo Alvarez, but in more irony, Golovkin may decide to avoid a rematch to move to bigger fights.
In boxing, the aggrieved party one day can often be a businessman the next and bigger paydays could
come elsewhere for Golovkin, who was reported to have decided to quickly come back early next year to dispose of his IBF mandatory defense, which could be Dereyvanchenko, but is more likely to be the top available contender, which by their most recent rankings would be Kamil Szeremeta of Poland, who won a squash match on the undercard.
Even if Golovkin was inclined to consider a rematch, Dereyvanchenko's camp is associated with the PBC and with the raised stature of Dereyvanchenko after such a high profile battle, PBC could decide to match him with their only top middleweight in opponent-starved WBC champion Jermall Charlo.
No matter who you agree or disagree with on who won, I think it was pretty clear that it was a one-point fight (Two of the cards had Golovkin winning 115-112, which I thought was too wide) either way.
Either you liked the heavier shots of Golovkin, had the rounds 6-6 and the knockdown swung it Golovkin's way or you thought the Dereyvanchenko work rate was more effective with Dereyvanchenko winning seven of the twelve rounds, losing a point for the first-round knockdown and winning by the same one point.
Either score would be very reasonable and since the fight was that close, it could hardly be a robbery as a few are claiming.
Unless you buy the illness excuse, Gennady Golovkin was not the same fighter at 37 years of age as in the past and from his body language, he didn't seem to be a fighter burning with love for the game at any time before and during the bout.
It's possible that the greatness of Golovkin may have been left in those rings in Las Vegas against Canelo and he may have left his passion there as well with his fire extinguished not by Canelo Alvarez in the ring, but by the pair of Canelo Alvarez and Oscar De La Hoya outside the ring, where they avoided him at his peak, waited until he looked to be a bit vulnerable (after Daniel Jacobs lasted twelve rounds), insisted the fight be held in Las Vegas where Canelo had benefited from a very arguable decision against Erislandy Lara and used the often-awful judge Adalaide Byrd with one of the worst big fight scorecards ever to deprive GGG of the first fight, which he clearly won and then made him wait a year for a rematch.
When you deal with all those issues- all of which are sadly par for the course in boxing, it's easy to lose interest, especially when despite those problems, you have still been very well compensated and you don't need to fight, should you prefer not to.
The best way for Gennady Golovkin to leaving boxing might have been on that September night in 2018, where he could have emulated Marvin Hagler and walked away thinking you got me, but you will get me no more.
Keep your rematch money and your stipulations, leave close to your prime with many thinking you won both fights and almost everyone not associated with Golden Boy or a Canelo fanboy believing you easily won the first and go home.
That's how I would have liked to have seen it end for GGG, but in boxing, those endings seldom wind up occurring and unless Golovkin was ill last night, I don't see this ending well.
Canelo Alvarez could decide to fight a slowed Golovkin now to establish superiority once and for all or it could be another contender that finishes what Dereyvanchenko started, but the fighter that will enter Canastota on the first ballot wasn't fighting in Madison Square Garden last night and seems unlikely to return.
The undercard was filled with uncompetitive blowouts that aren't even really worth mentioning with former IBF junior welterweight champion Ivan Baranchyk stopping Gabriel Bracero in four, super middleweight Ali Akhmedov blasted out uncompetitive Andrew Hernandez in the first round, and junior middleweight Israil Madrimov knocked out Alejandro Barrera in five.
All results were pretty much expected and didn't accomplish much other than showcasing talents for future fights.
In the boxing challenge, I outscored Ramon Malpica eight to six in points.
I added my points from wins from Madirmov (Three with bonus round point), Akhmedov and Baranchyk (Two each ) and Golovkin (One).
Ramon earned points from Golovkin and Madrimov (Two each) and Akhmedov and Baranchyk (One each).
The season points stand at 239-208.
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