Home Boxing News Sergiy Derevyanchenko promises to punish Jack Culcay in world title eliminator

Sergiy Derevyanchenko promises to punish Jack Culcay in world title eliminator

Daniel Jacobs versus Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Photo credit: @HBOBoxing

Former middleweight title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko 12-1 (10) will square off with Jack Culcay 25-3 (13) for the IBF number one position at the Minneapolis Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday night.

The 33-year-old Brooklyn-based Ukrainian is coming off a split decision loss to current IBF boss Daniel Jacobs last October.

“Jack Culcay is a good fighter,” Dereyanchenko said to RingTV.com via a translator. “[He is] experienced and he was a [WBA regular junior middleweight] world champion. This is a worthy opponent and I think the fight will be exciting.

“Culcay moves well on his feet; he is fast. I will use a jab against him, force him to make a mistake and punish him for it.”

The 33-year-old Culcay is a well-travelled and experienced campaigner. Back-to-back decision losses to Demetrius Andrade and Maciej Sulecki at 154-pounds in 2017 precipitated his move up the middleweight division where he has now logged three victories.

For the second fight in a row Derevyanchenko will be without his regular trainer Andre Rozier, who is in camp with stablemate Jacobs for his upcoming fight against Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez next month.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t work with Andre [Rozier] in this fight,” Derevyanchenko said. “I trained in two stages; the first stage I spent in Colorado Springs, the second in New York, training with Sergiy Korchinsky Jr. and Gary Stark.”