Sergiy Derevyanchenko

Sergiy Vyacheslavovich Derevyanchenko (Сергій В'ячеславович Дерев'янченко, Serhiy V'yacheslavovych Derev'yanchenko, born 31 October 1985), is a Ukrainian professional boxer who has challenged three times for world middleweight titles; the IBF title in 2018; the IBF and IBO titles in 2019; and the WBC title in 2020.

As an amateur, he won the bronze medal at middleweight at the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships.

As of February 2021, he is ranked as the world's fourth best active middleweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, eighth by BoxRec and fourth by The Ring magazine.

His father was a boxer, who introduced him to the sport.

Derevyanchenko trained with his father in his hometown, Feodosiya, until he was 10.

At the 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships, he beat Argenis Casimiro Núñez in the quarter-finals to win a bronze medal, but was unable to progress any further, losing to Matvey Korobov in the semi-final.

2007

He participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics but lost to Emilio Correa in the second round.

2008 (as a middleweight)

Derevyanchenko ended his amateur career with a record of 390–20.

Derevyanchenko took part in the 2009 AIBA World Boxing Championships, where he reached the quarter-finals but fell short against Vijender Singh.

2009

Between 2010 and 2014, he took part in the World Series of Boxing, where he became known as one of the best boxers in the competition.

He became known for his excellent technique and his handspeed.

He competed in 24 bouts, winning 23 of them.

Derevyanchenko was a champion twice, in the 2011–12 season with the Milano Thunder, and in the 2012–13 season with the Astana Arlans.

His sole loss in this competition came to Brian Castaño in the 2012–13 season quarter-final.

Derevyanchenko turned professional in 2014, signing with promoter Lou DiBella and fighting out of New York City.

After winning his first two fights, he signed a deal with manager Al Haymon.

Derevyanchenko headlined his first televised card in August 2015, facing off against Elvin Ayala in an eight-round bout aired on ShoBox, winning by a wide unanimous decision, improving his record to 6–0.

In August 2016, he faced former world champion Sam Soliman.

In the first round, Derevyanchenko landed a left-right combination to the head, causing Soliman to take a knee.

Soliman was dropped a further two times in the second-round, causing the referee to wave off the fight, giving Derevyanchenko the win by technical knockout (TKO).

The IBF ordered an eliminator between Derevyanchenko and Tureano Johnson, with the winner becoming the mandatory challenger to the unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.

The fight was originally set for April 2016, but Johnson had to pull out due to injury.

The fight was rescheduled for 25 August 2017, and was televised on Fox Sports 1.

Derevyanchenko slowly broke down Johnson, hurting him repeatedly throughout the fight, finally dropping Johnson in the twelfth round, at which point the referee waved off the fight.

27 October 2018, he fought Daniel Jacobs for the vacant IBF middleweight title at the Hulu Theater, New York.

Losing by split decision, handing Derevyanchenko the first loss of his professional career.

He fought Jack Culcay on 13 April 2019 in a final eliminator for the IBF middleweight title.

Winning by unanimous decision, Derevyanchenko became the mandatory challenger for unified middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez.

However, after extended negotiations between Álvarez and Derevyanchenko, both parties failed to schedule a fight before the IBF's deadline, causing the IBF to strip Álvarez of their title.

Álvarez's promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, expressed his displeasure with the decision to strip Álvarez of the belt, insisting Derevyanchenko had been offered an "unprecedented amount of money for a fighter of his limited stature and limited popularity".

On 5 October 2019, he faced Gennady Golovkin for the vacant IBF and IBO middleweight titles at Madison Square Garden, New York City.

After a tentative start to the opening round, which saw both fighters sizing each other up with probing jabs, Golovkin fired off a six punch combination ending with a right hook to Derevyanchenko's head, dropping the Ukrainian with 1 minute left in the first round.

Derevyanchenko rose to his feet within seconds, showing no signs of being hurt.

The knockdown appeared to spur Derevyanchenko into action as he began to answer Golovkin's punches with his own shots for the remainder of the round.

In round two, Derevyanchenko began putting three and four punch combinations together behind a single and double jab, while Golovkin stuck to single punches, landing the occasional eye-catching hook.

Towards the end of the round, Golovkin opened a cut above Derevyanchenko's right eye.

The action replay appeared to show the cut was caused by a left hook, however, the New York State Athletic Commission deemed it to be the result of an accidental clash of heads, meaning if the fight was stopped due to the cut before the fourth round then the fight would be ruled a no contest, after the fourth, the result would be determined by the scorecards with a technical decision rather than a technical knockout win for Golovkin if the cut was deemed to be the result of a punch.