According to the latest media news, the 160-pound united war between the current IBF/WBO middleweight champion Kazakh "GGG" Gennadi Golovkin (41-1-1, 36KO) and the current WBA middleweight champion /Japanese Olympic champion Tsuyoshi Murata (16-2, 13KO) will be rearranged to be held on April 2 or April 9, still in Saitama, Japan. The match was supposed to start on December 29 last year, but at that time, Japan's epidemic control was strict, and Golovkin was banned from entering the country, so it was rescheduled to be held in early April this year.
Golovkin tweeted a photo with head coach Jonathan Banks and remained in good shape. Golovkin also commented: "I am very happy to be back at training camp again and meet my team. I hope that the united war with Murata in early April can be announced as soon as possible. I'm looking forward to this trip to Japan and I'm going to do something big in 2022. ”
On April 8, Golovkin is about to celebrate his 40th birthday, and his last game was to defeat IBF legal challenger Pole Kamil Széremetta (21-2, 5KO) in the 7th round of 2020, in which Golovkin knocked down Szlemetta four times in the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th rounds, winning one-sidedly. Last June, Sztremetta also played former WBO super midweight champion Mexicon Game Mongua (38-0, 30KO) and voluntarily abandoned the match after the sixth leg.
The only loss of Golovkin's career was a controversial loss to active boxing superstar Sur Avarez (57-1-2, 39KO) in September 2018. That draw was in September 2017 with Avarez, although many felt Golovkin had an advantage. If you count the WBA-160-pound transition boxer and the regular boxer gold belt, Golovkin has successfully defended the title 20 times in the middleweights, equaling the historical record set by Hopkins. If only the WBA Super Boxer title is counted, then he has successfully defended the title 9 times in a row.
So far in his career, Golovkin has played six active boxers and former boxers, including Qasim Omar (29-16-1, 18KO), Daniel Giller (31-5, 16KO), David Lemio (43-4, 36KO), Kyle Bullock (39-3, 27KO), Daniel Jacobs (37-4, 30KO) and Sur Avarez (twice), with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Avarez has so far played against 17 active boxers and former boxers, achieving a record of 17 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw.
Murata, 36, currently has a professional record of 16 wins and 2 losses, and has 13 ko opponents. Murata is 1.84 meters tall and has an arm span of 1.90 meters, making him taller than Golovkin. Murata lost to Hassan Dan and Rob Brandt respectively, but he defeated Hassan Dan in 7 rounds and TKO Brent in 2 rounds in World War II, successfully taking revenge. Murata's last match was in December 2019 and there have been no matches for 26 months. In theory, Murata's strength is a certain gap compared to Muravkin's, but this home battle, if Golovkin can't KO win, the Japanese referee may pay more attention to Murata Yoshita.
It is also reported that Mexican rookie Isaac Cruz (22-2-1, 15KO), who played Gwita Davis (26-0, 24KO) last December, will take the stage again on April 16 to face cuban Julius Gamboa (30-4, 18KO), a former three-tier world boxer/2004 Olympic champion, which was also an important cushion match before spence jr. vs. Ugas's 147-pound united war.