Middleweight king Gennady Golovkin may soon know his next mandatory IBF challenger as the IBF has ordered Bahamiam Tureano Johnson (20-1, 14 KOs) and Sergiy Derevyanchenko (10-0, 8 KOs) of Ukraine to meet in the ring for the right to fight Golovkin. Johnson had been the clear mandatory, but fifteen months of inactivity prior to his most recent March bout caused the always strict IBF to rethink their rankings in the middleweight division.
Johnson, 33, is promoted by Golden Boy and Derevyanchenko, 31, by Lou DiBella. If both fighters accept and they can’t come to an agreement, the International Boxing Federation does do purse bids for eliminators in which both fighters split the money 50/50. They are expressing some frustration with Johnson here, it seems, as the IBF has stated that if he does not take this fight he will be removed from their top ten completely.
This is a good matchup to make at this point and I am glad the IBF is ordering it. Johnson, now based in Georgia, has only stepped up once in 2014 to fight Curtis Stevens. Tureano fought very well that night, but ultimately he was stopped in the tenth and final round in a fight he would have comfortably won on points had he made it to the final bell. There was some controversy to the stoppage and Johnson demanded a rematch, but he never got it. Tureano Johnson has gone 6-0 since that night, but no fights have come against top opposition.
Brooklyn based and Ukrainian born Sergiy Derevyanchenko may only have a slightly better pro resume, but his amateur resume is among the best in the sport. Nicknamed “The Technician,” Derevyanchenko boasts an extensive and outstanding amateur record of 390-20, plus a 21-1 record in the semi-pro World Series of Boxing. He also fought for Ukraine in the 2008 Olympic games. In Sergiy’s ten pro wins, by far his most prominent was a second round smashing of former titlist Australian Sam Soliman. Both fighters need the kind of step up they can find in one another before a stepping into a daunting task like fighting GGG, Gennady Golovkin.
