Via Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin and Ryota Murata will wrap up their middleweight title match on April 9 on DAZN. Golovkin-Murata will be at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
It was an important matchup for both, especially for IBF champion Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs). He has a deal to face Canelo Alvarez on September 17 in a three-part bout that he and the boxing world have been waiting for since 2018.
WBA 160lb champion Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) stands in the way of Golovkin towards his long-awaited third matchup against Canelo, and there will be a lot of pressure on him.
Murata, 36, has punching strength, size, chin, first-round IQ and the ability to beat Golovkin if he isn’t 100%. 2012 Olympic gold medalist Murata can repeat the performance we saw from Sergiy Derevyanchenko against Golovkin in 2019.
It would be difficult for Murata to play better than Golovkin without making significant changes to his game. Murata has never been a body puncher, and he will need to be to win.
Derevyanchenko gave Golovkin all he could handle in that fight and was able to defeat him with his withering body attack and constant pressure.
2008 Olympic athlete Derevyanchenko followed Canelo’s blueprint for a match against Golovkin in 2018. However, he improved on it by throwing more at his body and using footwork to change angles. level for his body attack.
Murata’s lack of experience against world-class opponents is where he will run into problems. Murata’s best opponents are boxers who are not as good as Golovkin.
The management for Murata has done an excellent job of guiding him to a world title without putting him in an A or B level confrontation, which is a remarkable achievement.
After Murata took the WBA title from Hassan N’Dam in 2017, they matched him carefully to make sure he didn’t stumble. But even then, Murata still lost to Rob Brant.
While Murata was able to avenge the defeat by stopping Brant in the rematch, it was a surprise that he was defeated by a fighter of his level in the first place.
Murata’s best victories:
- Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam
- Rob Brant
- Steven Butler
Murata didn’t fight the kind of opponent that would adequately prepare him to compete with Golovkin and to make matters worse, he’s been out of the ring since 2019.
Being out of the ring for that long and facing a better fighter in the world than the weak opponent Murata fought did not bode well for him.
First training session in Japan – done. Fighting week is almost here 💥🥊 #GGGMurata pic.twitter.com/fuZjPNHmcp
– Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBBoxing) April 1, 2022
The sad thing is that Golovkin spent over a year trying to organize a unified fight against Murata, and it was a business-level fight because American boxing fans are unfamiliar with the Japanese boxer.
Only fans of heavyweight boxing are familiar with Murata, and he’s not well known to them for obvious reasons.
It’s hard to build a worldwide fan base when you’re up against opaque opposition and losing to people at the bottom like 38-year-old Brant and N’Dam. Having said that, Murata is a huge star in Japan, which is the total appeal to Golovkin.
Sean Jones sees Golovkin defeat Murata reasonably quickly by using his boxing skills to take down the hardened cyborg champion. Sure, Murata has great strength, but he’s too mechanical and rigid to beat Golovkin.
Murata is likely to go far as he has an excellent chin and takes a terrible punishment without being knocked down. For example, Rob Brant threw more than 1000 punches in his first fight with Murata but was unable to knock him down.
If Golovkin throws even half that number, Murata will be stopped because he can’t use the kind of power GGG possesses.
