WBA titleholder Ryota Murata will face IBF champion Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan in a middleweight title unification bout on the finish of the 12 months, organizers mentioned Friday.
The matchup between the 35-year-old Murata and 39-year-old Golovkin, which has been mentioned since as early as 2018, will lastly occur on Dec. 29 at Saitama Tremendous Enviornment.
“He’s the boxer I respect most. I need to beat him and show that I’m strongest,” Murata mentioned in a information convention in Tokyo.
“I’m grateful to him for agreeing to this struggle.”
Murata has a 16-2 report with 13 knockouts. He had a embellished beginner profession, highlighted by his gold medal on the 2012 London Olympics, however has not fought since stopping Canada’s Steven Butler in 5 rounds at Yokohama Enviornment in December 2019.
“GGG,” as Golovkin is understood, has a 41-1-1 report, together with 36 knockouts. Golovkin sits second in ESPN’s middleweight rankings, with Murata in fourth.
For a very long time thought of among the many finest pound-for-pound fighters within the sport, Golovkin, the silver medalist on the 2004 Athens Olympics, is coming off a seventh-round stoppage of Polish challenger Kamil Szeremeta in December 2020.
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KEYWORDS
Ryota Murata, Gennady Golovkin
