The false narrative that Gennadiy Golovkin was exposed by Sergiy Derevyanchenko

Gennadiy Golovkin escaped with the IBF middleweight title with a narrow unanimous decision over Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a fight of the year candidate that saw the 37-year-old pushed harder than he ever has in a boxing ring. 

Aside from those who thought that Derevyanchenko pulled off the upset, there was a loud segment of boxing fans who suggested that GGG had been exposed and this was the beginning of the end for the former unified champion. 

That’s not necessarily true. 

Similar to the previous week’s showdown between Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter, more has been said about the winner being exposed than how we collectively may have underestimated their respective opponents. 

Most fans anticipated a destruction of Porter in their welterweight title clash as oddsmakers installed the then-WBC champion as a significant underdog despite having one of the best resumes in boxing. Instead, fans were treated to a magnificent back-and-forth war that saw Spence needing to dig deep to turn back Porter’s challenge. 

When fans stated that Spence had been exposed, it served as disrespect to the kind of fight Porter had inside of the boxing ring. He put the kind of pressure on Spence that the Texan had never dealt with in the pro ranks and pushed him to the limit for 12 high-octane rounds. He may have won the battle, but Porter left the ring that night having won over the hearts of fans who wrote him off. 

Something similar happened with Golovkin and Derevyanchenko, where the expectation by fans was that GGG would steamroll his way through "The Technician" and force his way into a third fight with Canelo Alvarez. Instead, Golovkin was met with a fierce opponent who put up a spectacular fight and came up just a hair short as GGG’s hand was raised in victory.

The term “exposed” is one that is loosely tossed around in boxing circles whenever a fighter has a tougher-than-expected bout. But being “exposed” would suggest that a flaw was found that fighters can take advantage of. In the case of Spence, it would require a fighter who was like Porter physically and mentally. And, if you haven’t noticed, there is really nobody like Shawn Porter around today. 

Forget the rumors that Golovkin was sick and watch the fight with Dervyanchenko. Unlike most GGG opponents, the Ukrainian refused to go away despite being knocked down in the first round. Instead, he and trainer Andre Rozier devised the perfect game plan that saw Derevyanchenko deploy a steady diet of diet punching with aggression that kept GGG off balance for much of the night. 

Once again, this is a situation where fans didn’t give Derevyanchenko the credit he deserved heading into the fight. The 33-year-old had only lost once in 14 fights to that point. His lone blemish was a tough split decision loss to Daniel Jacobs, who gave GGG all he could handle back in 2017. Up until that point, it was one dominant performance after another. The problem was that fans either hadn’t seen enough of Derevyanchenko and wrote him off as a GGG punching bag or judged him from his underwhelming previous performance against Jack Culcay.

Either way, both presumptions turned out to be wrong. 

Golovkin had to dig deep in this one as Derevyanchenko refused to go away despite an early knockdown and a nasty gash over his eye. Instead, he fought harder and used impressive footwork and body punching to keep Golovkin honest. 

Derevyanchenko even managed to hurt Golovkin with a wicked body shot in the fifth that turned the tide in what was a narrowly contested fight. Judges ultimately didn’t see it in his favor as Golovkin managed to shake off the slow middle rounds and fought strong in the championship frames to take home the title with two scores of 115-112 and a scorecard of 114-113 in his favor. 

It’s a nasty habit that boxing fans — both casual and hardcore — have when looking at fights where an opponent is thought to be a tremendous underdog despite their resume suggesting otherwise. In the case of Spence-Porter, Spence had never been in a situation where he didn’t dictate the action from start to finish. Porter disrupted his plans and made Spence fight at an uncomfortable pace and distance. That’s not exposure, that’s an opponent presenting adversity. 

The same can be said for Derevyanchenko, who came in as an underrated boxer with a stellar amateur record. His chin had yet to be truly tested, and he passed Golovkin’s exam with flying colors. GGG was forced to dig deep, fight back and will himself back into the fight to win.

While some may consider this a weakness, adversity can make a fighter grow stronger. It can also lure Canelo right into a trilogy fight with Golovkin if he believes that the Kazakh fighter is long in the tooth and on the wrong side of his career. 

It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that "The Big Drama Show" is coming to a close. However, fans said the same thing when Floyd Mayweather Jr. had a tougher than expected fight with Marcos Maidana. And then he put him through the rinse cycle in the rematch. Sometimes it's a fighter having an off night while other times it has a lot to do with the opponent and how they choose to fight.

Either way, it doesn't always mean that it's the end of a fighter's career when they are in tough against an underrated opponent.