Sergiy Derevyanchenko is confident that he’ll eventually get a shot at Jermall Charlo.
Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko is the WBC’s number one challenger for Charlo’s 160-pound championship. Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC’s president, informed BoxingScene.com recently that Derevyanchenko still hasn’t been declared Charlo’s mandatory challenger, which means Charlo isn’t obligated to face Derevyanchenko next.
Nevertheless, Derevyanchenko explained during the newest episode of “The PBC Podcast” why he feels he’ll challenge Charlo sooner rather than later.
“I think in due time that fight will happen,” Derevyanchenko told co-hosts Kenneth Bouhairie and Michael Rosenthal through a translator. “We’re both [with] Al Haymon, so that makes things a lot easier. It’s just easier to make a deal, it’s easier to negotiate when we’re with the same person, versus going out with somebody else. So, I think in due time that fight will happen.”
The 34-year-old Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) has lost only close, 12-round decisions to Gennadiy Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) and Daniel Jacobs (36-3, 30 KOs). The Brooklyn-based Derevyanchenko’s unforgettable slugfest against Golovkin, which he lost by unanimous decision October 5 at Madison Square Garden in New York, was voted “Fight of the Year” for 2019 by BoxingScene.com.
Brooklyn’s Jacobs defeated Derevyanchenko by split decision to win the then-vacant IBF 160-pound crown in October 2018 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.
Derevyanchenko would be the best opponent Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) has faced since the Houston native moved up from the junior middleweight division to middleweight three years ago. The skilled, strong Derevyanchenko acknowledged that it would be a difficult fight for him as well.
“I actually view him as a very good fighter,” Derevyancheko said. “He’s very strong. He’s young. And I think our fight would make for a great fight. He may not have the deep-seated amateur experience that a Jacobs or a Golovkin has, but he’s got enough professional experience at this point that he’s totally on their level.”
Derevyanchenko declined to make a prediction, but he feels he and the 30-year-old Charlo could produce a fan-friendly action fight comparable to the memorable battle he and Golovkin gave fans.
“I really don’t know,” Derevyanchenko said. “I don’t like to predict how these fights are gonna go before they [happen], but I feel confident that it will be as entertaining as the Golovkin fight.”
If he doesn’t face Derevyanchenko in his first post-pandemic bout, Charlo could defend his title against England’s Chris Eubank. Charlo and Eubank (29-2, 22 KOs) boxed on the same “Showtime Championship Boxing” card December 7 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and their fight was under consideration before the COVID-19 pandemic brought boxing to a standstill in mid-March.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.