Report: Gennadiy Golovkin, Ryota Murata Agree to Title Unification Fight in December

Gennadiy Golovkin and Ryota Murata have plans in place for a unification fight on Dec. 28, The Athletic's Mike Coppinger reported on Thursday.

The fight will take place in Tokyo, and the time difference will have the fight air in the morning in North America. 

Golovkin, who has been the IBF and IBO middleweight champion since 2019 when he unseated Segiy Derevyanchenko in a unanimous decision victory, is 41-1-1 and hasn't been defeated or drawn against anyone besides Canelo Alvarez, who knocked out Billy Joe Saunders two weeks ago in a unification battle of his own. 

As for Murata (16-2), he claimed the WBA championship in January. 

Per Coppinger, both fighters will have another match in the lead up to the main one, and the warm-up bouts could be on the same card. 

The buildup for this fight dates back to earlier in May, when Eddie Hearn, who promoted Golovkin's most recent fight, told DAZN that a December fight against Murata was the plan. 

The update to Golovkin's schedule pushes back any potential trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez. Alvarez, who is reportedly going to battle Caleb Plant in a September battle to become undisputed super middleweight champion, has previously said he wants Golovkin again, but under one condition. 

“If the [GGG] fight happens after unifying at 168 pounds, I’m open to anything, but it would be at 168 pounds,” Canelo said, per Coppinger. “If [Golovkin] wants to fight with me, he has to do it at 168. Why wouldn’t he do it? I went up from 154 to 160 to fight with him.”