Gennady Golovkin Getting Acclimated To Japan

Coming up on Saturday night in Japan IBF World Middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin is back in the ring for the first time in over a year. And in addition to preparing for his opponent, WBA titleholder Ryota Murata, he’s been getting acclimated to fighting essentially a “road game” in the Far East.

Golovkin and his team showed a training video from this weekend in Japan after they arrived from California, where the iconic Middleweight champ of the 2010s has been training for his latest title showdown.

The first training session in Japan – done. The fight week is almost here 💥🥊 #GGGMurata pic.twitter.com/fuZjPNHmcp

— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) April 1, 2022

As we wrote late last week, Golovkin will have multiple challenges in this battle early Saturday morning U.S. time at the Saitama Sports Arena outside of Tokyo.

First, he has to prepare to take on the popular Murata in his home setting. Next, the fight has had to be rescheduled from late December due to Covid concerns and policies in place in Japan last Winter. Those were not only limiting international travel into the country, but also limiting the number of fans for the live gate at the big arena like in Saitama.

Triple G, 41-1-1 and the former, dominant, three belt, Unified Middleweight champ of the 2010s and he will turn 40 this weekend, as well. Further, he knows his clock is ticking on getting back on the biggest stages with this bout and another looming.

After he lost his versions of the Middleweight crown on a tight decision to Canelo Alvarez in September 2018, he has a chance to get back in front of the fellow future Hall of Famer Alvarez later this year, too.

Canelo has committed to fight GGG in the Fall, likely September and likely in Las Vegas. That’s provided that they both are victorious in their upcoming bouts (Alvarez fights Russian Dimitry Bivol on May 7th).

Back to Murata, he’s 16-2 as a pro, and won the WBA “regular” Middleweight belt with a second round KO of American Rob Brandt in Osaka, Japan, in July in 2019. He was then elevated to their “world” champ and defended the title again by KO over lightly regarded Canadian Steven Butler in late December 2019 in Yokohama, Japan.

Murata, who just just turned 36 in January, hasn’t fought since, a layoff now of some 27 months.

Now, we’ll see what the two aging fighters have left for the showdown in the “land of the Rising Sun.”