The long-awaited IBF middleweight title fight between Daniel Jacobs and Sergiy Derevyanchenko has been officially announced.
After weeks of back-and-forth negotiations, multiple purse bids being ordered and a decision of which boxer Andre Rozier will train for this fight, Matchroom Boxing announced the Jacobs vs. Derevyanchenko. The fight will take place October 27 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden and will headline a big HBO-televised card.
The two have long been negotiating to fight for the vacant bout, but in past weeks, there have been rumors that the fight was taking place in other venues around New York, such as Nassau Coliseum. But any rumors of negotiations going awry or indecisiveness regarding the venue has been squashed with the announcement of the fight in a recent press conference in New York.
The IBF title was vacated a couple of months back when then-champion Gennady Golovkin refused to fight Derevyanchenko, the mandatory challenger to the IBF title. As such, the IBF stripped Golovkin of the title and then ordered Derevyanchenko to fight Jacobs, the next-highest ranked available contender.
Jacobs has not fought since this past April when he defeated Maciej Sulecki in a WBA middleweight title eliminator. Jacobs previously held the WBA ?regular? middleweight title until losing to Golovkin in March 2017.
Derevyanchenko, who sports a 12-0 record as a pro with 10 KO victories, became the IBF?s mandatory challenger when he stopped Tureano Johnson at the end of the 12th round in their August 2017 fight. Since then, Derevyanchenko has only fought once, a sixth-round stoppage win over Dashon Johnson in March.