Gennadiy Golovkin escapes with victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko in war

Gennadiy Golovkin said beforehand that his fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko would be tough. He was right.

Derevyanchenko survived a first-round knockdown and a second-round cut to give Golovkin everything he could handle but came up short on the scorecards to lose a unanimous, but close decision Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The cards read 114-113 (six rounds to six), 115-112 and 115-112. Thus, Golovkin regained the IBF middleweight title that he once held.

Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 knockouts) put Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) down with a shot to the top of the head but didn’t hurt him in the opening round. Then, in the second, a left to Derevyanchenko’s face appeared to cause a cut above his right eye, although the referee ruled it was caused by an accidental head butt.

Things didn’t look good for Derevyanchenko at that point. However, he was just getting started. He fought with great urgency from the third round on, jabbing, pounding GGG’s body and landing plenty of head shots.

Derevyanchenko’s body punches were his most impressive shots and seemed to take a toll of Golovkin. A punch to the liver in the fifth round made Golovkin wince, which has been a rare sight in his career.

Golovkin certainly didn’t roll over and landed his share of hard punches but one could argue that he was ourtworked from the third round on. Still, Golovkin emerged with the victory and in position to fight Canelo Alvarez a third time if Alvarez is willing.

Of course, another option would be a rematch with Derevyanchenko, which seems appropriate given the quality and competitiveness of the fight.

Afterward, when Golovkin was interviewed in the ring, the crowd at the Garden booed. They seemed to think that GGG got away with one. Some will agree, some won’t. Everyone will agree it was a great fight.