Gennadiy Golovkin will return to the ring against Ryota Murata in a middleweight title-unification bout Saturday in Japan.
Gennadiy Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) vs. Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, April 9
- Time: 5 a.m. ET / 2 a.m. PT
- Where: Super Arena, Saitama, Japan
- TV/Stream: DAZN
- Cost: DAZN is $19.99 per month or $99.99 annually
- Division: Middleweight
- Rounds: 12
- At stake: Golovkin’s IBF and Murata’s WBA titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: Golovkin No. 9
- Odds: Golovkin 5-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
- Also on the card: Shuichiro Yoshino vs. Masayuki Ito, lightweights; Junto Nakatani vs. Ryota Yamauchi, flyweights (for Nakatani’s WBO title)
- Prediction: Golovkin KO 8
- Background: Golovkin turns 40 on the day before he meets Murata but remains a major player in the sport. The showdown on Murata’s home turf will unify two of the four major middleweight titles. And if Triple-G wins, as he’s expected to do, a third bout with rival Canelo Alvarez could come on September 17. Golovkin began this, his second reign as a 160-pound champion by outpointing Sergey Derevyanchenko for the vacant title in October 2019 and successfully defended it by stopping Kamil Szeremeta in December 2020, his most-recent fight. Alvarez is scheduled to challenge light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol on May 7. The outcome of that fight might not have a bearing on whether the Mexican star faces Golovkin next. Triple-G and Alvarez fought to a disputed draw in their first fight (2017) and Alvarez won a close decision in the rematch (2018). Of course, if Murata wins on Saturday, he would join the long list of potential opponents for Alvarez. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist was elevated to WBA “super” champion after Alvarez vacated the title. He last fought in December 2019, when he stopped Steven Butler in five rounds. He will have been out of the ring for more than two years.
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