By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) attended the press conference in Tokyo on Thursday–a couple of days before his showdown with WBA titleholder Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) at the Saitama Super Arena, and said, “It’s my honor to fight Murata here in Japan. I deeply appreciate this fight finally realized with best efforts of people concerned under the coronavirus pandemic. I respect Murata as a person.” Murata also said, “I would like to repeat what Golovkin said. Now that our fight scheduled in December was postponed, I truly thank people participating in this event for their great contributions to materialize it.” GGG said on the four-month postponement, “I could study Murata more deeply and our fight will be really worth watching.” Murata responded to him, saying, “I could experience more sparring sessions with the postponement. I wish what I have been training will be shown in the ring.” GGG will celebrate his fortieth birthday tomorrow just a day prior to this big event.
The officials for the WBA-IBF unification bout will be as follows: referee Luis Pabon (Puerto Rico); judges Glenn Feldman, Robert Hoyle and Alex Levin (all US); WBA supervisor Jose Oliver Gomez (Panama), IBF supervisor Ben Keilty (Australia).
This biggest event ever in Japanese boxing history will be promoted by Hall of Famer Akihiko Honda of Teiken Promotions.
_
Damn! GGG looking a little old in these pics?! I’m going on the record (once again), UPSET!! Murata by late rounds TKO!!
Relax vato, it’s called balding lol.
Borimex. Lets hope so. Im pushing for Murata!
Think his chances are better than the 4-1 odds against him, although late money has been coming in on GGG.
Looking for a good fight here as both combatants are “rusty”.
big venue. very cool. could be the 1st of 2
I’m gonna play the devils advocate on this since I havent seen any comment on it yet. GGG went after the weakest champ in his division by choosing Murata. Why on earth would he go after Murata to Unify when there were two other good champs that were steady calling him out in Charlo and Andrade. I dont understand why more peeps on here arent calling him out for this as they did when Canelo chose Kovalev. GGG is taking the easy way out for another belt. Hope Murata smashes him and he can finally retire.
Andrade is POOP