Gennady Golovkin adds the WBA middleweight title

Unified middleweight champion of the International Boxing Federation and the International Boxing Organization Gennady Golovkin, a Kazakh boxer who is half-Korean, has reclaimed a title of the World Boxing Association by earning a TKO against Ryota Murata.

Golovkin drove Murata with nine WBA champion titles groggy to give him a right hook in a match in Saitama on Saturday to unify the IBF and WBA middleweight titles. He led the game by detonating six strong punches to send Murata’s mouthpiece flying. In the match one day after his 40th birthday, Golovkin successfully took over titles of three out of the four major international boxing organizations, which he previously owned. He made a record of 42-1-1, with 37 KOs.

Earning a silver medal in the 2004 Athene Olympic Games, Golovkin, whose grandfather on his mother side is Korean, started his professional career in 2010 to become a unified champion of the four major boxing organizations in the world in 2016. However, he was deprived of his title by Canelo Álvarez, a Mexican rival. In the 1st round, he managed to defend his title by tying the match in 2017. However, he lost his IBF title as he did not fight against a mandatory challenger being too focused on the 2nd bout with Álvarez in September 2018. Losing to Álvarez by a decision later, he failed to defend the remaining title.

Defeating Sergiy Derevyanchenko to reclaim the IBF and IBO titles in 2019, Golovkin recovered the WBA title, gathering attention as to whether he will have a third match with Álvarez. Conquering four weight divisions from welterweight to light heavyweight, Álvarez plays regardless of weight divisions. Currently being the super-middleweight champion WBA and WBC (World Boxing Council), Álvarez is scheduled to fight against the WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol next month. If he wins, Golovkin will become the next competitor.


Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com