NEW YORK — After a historic middleweight world title reign that came to an end in controversial fashion 13 months ago, Gennadiy Golovkin yearned for another title belt.
He got it on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden but his brawl with Sergiy Derevyanchenko may have been the hardest fight of his career and a result that will be debated for years to come.
Golovkin won a unanimous decision and a vacant middleweight world title but he certainly did not look the like the destroyer he has been known for being.
Judges Frank Lombardi and Eric Marlinski both scored the fight 115-112 and Kevin Morgan had it 114-112 for Golovkin, who dropped Derevyanchenko in the first round but seemed to struggle mightly with Derevyanchenko’s relentlessness for much of the fight. ESPN scored the fight 114-113 for Derevyanchenko, who failed in a second bid to win a 160-pound world title.