Home Boxing News Jonathon Banks calls on Gennady Golovkin to improve or retire

Jonathon Banks calls on Gennady Golovkin to improve or retire

Photo by Joe Mitchell/Ringnews24

The trainer of IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin 40-1-1 (35) says he should retire if he can’t tighten up his defence.

Johnathon Banks also blamed himself for Golovkin’s subpar performance that saw him struggle to a razor-thin unanimous decision victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko 13-2 (10) at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday night.

Golovkin won by scores of 114-113 and 115-112 twice after dropping Derevyanchenko in the opening round and cutting him in the second, but the 33-year-old Ukrainian came roaring back to hurt the 37-year-old Kazakh to the body in the middle rounds.

Banks was less than impressed but blamed himself for Golovkin’s performance.

“It’s my fault. I’ve got to get over to him that he needs to do this life or death situation,” Banks said to Seconds Out. “Either he needs to retire or do it this way. If he can’t do it that way, I hate to see my guys taking all these punches, and I know they’re better than what I’m seeing. I take the blame for it.

“I told them, we’re in for a long night, because this kid is one tough customer. You’ve got this young kid Derevyanchenko. He wants to sprint.

“When we were starting the fight off, I was trying to get GGG to start the fight off fast, because he’s fighting younger and younger competition. I’m trying to get him to start off faster. You let your hands go, build your own lead, and you can dictate the pace.

“The first round. You seen the way he got up and reacted. He’s been fighting the way he fights for a while. Getting him to start slipping punches, moving his head, and letting his hands go is difficult.

“These are the type of fights that GGG likes for whatever reason. He wants to please the crowd. I don’t care about pleasing the crowd. I care about my fighter winning and protecting him at all costs. Everyone in this division with titles is younger than him. And if you want to stay with these young boys, you got to do what you’ve got to do.

Banks added he has been trying to increase Golovkin’s punch output while simultaneously working on his defence.

“I’m trying to take what GGG already has and add some defense to it and raise his offense output higher. That’s all,” he said. “Those are two things. The main things are defense and a higher offensive output. Those are the main two things that are damaging for him, and anybody that knows how to move knows it.

“I told him, Derevyanchenko is going to come forward, because you’re so willing to go backwards. If he wasn’t willing to go backwards, then Derevyanchenko would have had more problems coming forward. Every round, I was telling him, ‘Dude, you’re too willing to go backwards. The things we worked on in the gym and the things we did in the gym, if he did them, at not point in the fight would he not failed to let his hands go.

“I wanted more punches landed, and I wanted more head movement, but what happens, happens. I’ve got to figure out my flaw first before I figure out his. I’ve got to future out what’s not crossing over, and why it’s not crossing over. I put everything on me.”