IBF, IBO middleweight winner Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) took to social media late Thursday night time to announce that his upcoming unification with WBA middleweight kingpin Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) had been postponed.
The two champions were being scheduled to collide on December 29 at the Saitama Tremendous Arena in Saitama, Japan. DAZN was heading to carry the occasion.
Nevertheless, the fight fell into jeopardy earlier this 7 days when Japan reinstated strict border controls in reaction to the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
The planned combat will now get area in the initial quarter of 2022.
“I am deeply let down that struggle in Japan has been postponed but the wellness and protection of the general public have to generally be the precedence. I look ahead to returning to the ring towards Ryota as shortly as doable,” Golovkin stated to his followers.
Golovkin has been out of action because December 18 of 2020, when he scored four knockdowns towards undefeated mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta, en route to a seventh-spherical stoppage.
Murata on the other hand has been out of the ring for almost two yrs.
He created a protection of his WBA title on December 23 of 2019, with a fifth-round TKO of as soon as-crushed Steven Butler.