Gennadiy Golovkin will return to Madison Square Garden for a second straight fight, but this time, it will be with a world title on the line.
Matchroom Boxing USA announced that Golovkin will take on Sergiy Derevyanchenko for the vacant IBF middleweight title at the New York venue on October 5. The fight will headline a DAZN card, Golovkin's second since signing a six-fight deal with the streaming service.
The fight between Golovkin and Derevyanchenko came after Canelo Alvarez was stripped of the IBF title for failing to secure a deal with Derevyanchenko, who is the IBF's mandatory challenger at 160 pounds. This meant that Golovkin, the next-highest ranked available contender in the IBF rankings, was ordered to face the once-beaten contender and negotiations quickly started afterwards.
Golovkin and Derevyanchenko were actually ordered to fight by the IBF in 2018 when Golovkin held the governing body's 160-pound title. The fight never came through as Golovkin elected to have a rematch against Alvarez last September and so the IBF stripped him of the title. Derevyanchenko would go on to fight Daniel Jacobs for the vacant IBF title last year with Jacobs winning by split decision. Jacobs ended up losing the IBF title to Alvarez in a title unification this past May while Derevyanchenko won a title eliminator to get back in the title picture.
The 38-year-old Golovkin first won the IBF middleweight title in 2015 at Madison Square Garden when he stopped David Lemieux in the eighth round. Golovkin would make four total defenses of the IBF title before losing the title last year.