GGG will likely return to the ring between March and May 2019

Japanese middleweight Ryota Murata has emerged as an unlikely frontrunner for Gennady Golovkin’s next fight.

The former unified middleweight king suffered the first defeat of his career by close, majority decision to Canelo Alvarez in September, and the pair will go their separate ways for the time being.



With Canelo now set to fight Rocky Fielding in December and signed exclusively to fledgling US streaming service DAZN, GGG’s team are instead looking at potential alternative opponents for his next bout.

His promoter Tom Loeffler told ESPN: “Murata fights this weekend and he is a very attractive option if he beats Rob Brant. That fight seems like it is very makeable.

“Gennady has always enjoyed fighting internationally.

“We know what GGG brings to the table and Murata brings monster ratings in Japan and he is very popular.

“I would say he has distinguished himself as the frontrunner if he can win on Saturday night.”



Murata is a London 2012 Olympic gold medallist who has risen to become WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion as a professional.

He has a record of 14-1 and avenged his sole defeat (which was widely considered a robbery) by knockout.

The proposed fight would take place at the Tokyo Dome in Murata’s native Japan – the same arena in which Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson back in 1990.

https://talksport.com/sport/boxing/4...-ryota-murata/