Report- Gennady Golovkin-Ryota Murata Back On April 9th

The delayed World Middleweight Unification title fight between one of the division’s greats and a Japanese star appears to be back on for next month. This, as IBF 160 lb. titleholder Gennady Golovkin and WBA World champ, Ryota Murata have apparently got a reschedule date.

ESPN’s Mike Coppinger wrote Tuesday night that the bout, which was to have been at the end of December in Japan but got delayed to due rise in Covid 19 positives there and limiting of fans, etc., is now going to be back for the second weekend in April.

Sources: The Gennadiy Golovkin-Ryota Murata middleweight title unification is set for April 9 in Saitama, Japan on DAZN. If GGG wins and Canelo Alvarez defeats Dmitriy Bivol on May 7, they’ll meet in a trilogy bout for the undisputed super middleweight title on Sept. 17.

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) March 2, 2022

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

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

First, Canelo was stripped of the IBF portion of the championship in the Summer 2019 for failing to fight Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Golovkin jumped at the chance to a world title back by fighting the Ukrainian #1 contender for the vacant belt later in October of that year.

It was a hard-fought competitive battle that saw Triple G take a lot of punishment, yet still emerge victorious by decision to recapture a portion of the Middleweight crown in a division that he ruled from 2012-18 as WBA champ, then adding WBC, and then, also securing the IBF belt the first time.

Still, there were several prominent analysts and observers that saw that fight and believe that his better days are clearly behind him. Even longtime trainer and boxing analyst Teddy Atlas went so far as to say Golovkin “looked like a shot fighter” that night with the Derevyanchenko.

After the Covid 19 shutdown of the sport for almost 90 days in the Spring of 2020, Triple G finally fought his long-delayed IBF mandatory battle with Poland’s Kamil Szeremeta that December 202 and scored an impressive, if not expected, 7th round KO. He hasn’t been in the ring, again, to this point.

As for 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 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.

So, it’s a two+ year layoff for him headed into this bout. Still, it’s a battle in boxing crazed country against one of the formerly top names “pound for pound” in the sport since 2015.

Meanwhile, the biggest fight “in play” is if GGG can get the win in Japan, he’s agreed to meet Canelo in the trilogy bout for them this September.

But, with his his age and having to travel to the Far East, etc. that’s not a guarantee, either.