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Exclusive: Kovalev coach not convinced by GGG’s win

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Top trainer Buddy McGirt has given his verdict to WBN on the recent victory for Gennadiy Golovkin over Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

The pair fought it out for the vacant IBF middleweight title in New York, with ‘GGG’ earning a hard-fought decision which could have gone either way.

In what was a Fight of the Year contender, Golovkin ensures he’s been a world champion in each of the last ten years.

Airing his views, the experienced McGirt wasn’t convinced by Golovkin’s performance.

Buddy McGirt speaks to World Boxing News exclusively

“I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. In the first half of the fight – I’m sitting in the third row – I was with a bunch of former world champion, a lot of the old-timers from New York. We all just sat there and missed the first half of the fight,” McGirt admitted to World Boxing News.

“We were just running our mouths and we wasn’t really watching the first six rounds of the fight. But the last six rounds of the fight was very competitive, I thought a draw would have been fair.

“I think without the knockdown the other guy should have won so a draw would have been fair. I think that GGG did too much head hunting. Everything he threw he had knockout written on it instead of just breaking the guy down.”

Asked about Golovkin’s future at 37 years of and the chances of a second fight with Derevyanchenko, McGirt replied: “He isn’t going to go out on a fight like that, he wants to go out with a stellar performance.

“I think a rematch would be great. It depends. In all honestly it would depend on the strategy that GGG has for the fight.

“He’s got to have the answer for what the other guy is doing because I believe if they do have the rematch when the bell rings for round one, it’s going to be round 13 and 14, 15.

“I think this guy has GGG’s number so he’s not going to do anything different.

“GGG has got to do something different and if he don’t then it’s not going to be a good result,” concluded the coach.

KOVALEV

McGirt is currently in training with light heavyweight world title holder Sergey Kovalev for a massive collision with Canelo Alvarez.

Kovalev bids to fend off the challenge of Golokvin’s fiercest rival on November 2nd in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A win for Canelo would be an historic feat and could leave Golovkin further out in the cold as the Kazakh chases a trilogy.

At present, the Mexican holds a win and a draw in the controversial two-fight series.

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