Gennady Golovkin Gennadiy Gennadyevich Golovkin (; also spelled Gennady; born 8 April 1982), often known by his nickname "GGG" or "Triple G", is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. He has held multiple middleweight world championships, and is a two-time former u ...

vs.

Ryōta Murata is a Japanese former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2022. He held the WBA (Regular) middleweight title twice between 2017 and 2021, and the WBA (Super) middleweight title from 2021 to 2022. As an amateur, he won a silver medal ...

, billed as ''Big Drama in Japan'', was a

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

unification Unification or unification theory may refer to: Computer science * Unification (computer science), the act of identifying two terms with a suitable substitution * Unification (graph theory), the computation of the most general graph that subs ...

professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

match contested between IBF and IBO champion,

and

WBA (Super) The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is an international professional boxing organization based in Panama. The WBA awards its world championship title at the professional level. Founded i ...

champion,

. The bout took place at

Saitama Super Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Chūō-ku, Saitama, Chūō-ku, Saitama (city), Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It opened preliminarily on May 5, 2000, and then was officially opened on September 1 of the same year. Its maximum capa ...

, Saitama, Japan on April 9, 2022.

Background

After multiple rumors of a middleweight unification match between titlists Gennady Golovkin and Ryōta Murata, it was announced on October 27, 2021 that a deal had finally been agreed between the two to stage the bout in the latter's home country of Japan, at the Saitama Super Arena on December 29, 2021. However, the bout was postponed due to Japan closing its borders because of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

Omicron variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a Variants of SARS-CoV-2, variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021. It was first detected in Botswana and has ...

. It was later rescheduled on April 9, 2022. Golovkin is a two-time middleweight champion, having held the IBF and IBO titles since defeating

Sergiy Derevyanchenko Serhiy Vyacheslavovich Derevyanchenko (; born 31 October 1985) is a Ukrainian professional boxer who has challenged three times for world middleweight titles; the IBF title in 2018; the IBF and IBO titles in 2019; and the WBC title in 2020. A ...

in a fight of the year contender in 2019. He previously held the unified WBA (Super), WBC, IBF and IBO titles between 2014 and 2018, in addition to being ranked as the world's best boxer,

pound for pound Pound for pound is a ranking used in combat sports, such as boxing, wrestling, or mixed martial arts, adjusted to compensate for weight class. As fighters in different weight classes do not compete directly, determining the best fighter pound for ...

, from September 2017 to September 2018 by ''

The Ring The Ring may refer to: Arts and entertainment *The Ring (franchise), ''The Ring'' (franchise), a Japanese horror media franchise Literature * ''The Ring'', a 1967 novel by Richard Chopping * ''The Ring'', a 1988 book by Daniel Keys Moran * ''The R ...

'' magazine. Prior to the bout against Murata, he made a record 21st middleweight title defense against

Kamil Szeremeta Kamil Szeremeta (born 11 October 1989) is a Polish professional boxer who held the European middleweight title from 2018 to 2019. As of June 2020, he is ranked as the world's seventh best active middleweight by ''The Ring'' and eighth by the Tr ...

on December 18, 2020. Murata is an Olympic gold medalist, having claimed gold at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. As a professional, he has defeated every opponent he has faced, having avenged decision losses against

Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (born 18 February 1984) is a Cameroonian-French professional boxer. He has held WBO middleweight title in 2012 and the WBA (Regular) title in 2017, and has challenged once for a super-middleweight world title in 2019. Ama ...

and

Rob Brant Robert Brant (born October 2, 1990) is an American professional boxer who held the WBA (Regular) middleweight title from 2018 to 2019. Amateur career Brant was a member of the US National boxing team. He began boxing as an amateur in 2007 and ...

with stoppage victories.

The fight

Murata started fast and seemed to control the pace for some of the early rounds until Golovkin took over by the mid-rounds. Golovkin inflicted tremendous punishment on Murata in round eight. The end came in round nine when after a hard right hand dropped Murata, the Japanese's corner threw in their towel, giving Golovkin a ninth-round technical knockout win.

Fight card

Broadcasting

References

__NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Golovkin, Murata 2022 in boxing 2022 in Japanese sport April 2022 sports events in Japan Boxing matches in Japan Murata Boxing on DAZN Middleweight championship matches Sports events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Sport in Saitama (city)