Daniel Jacobs, Sergiy Derevyanchenko have deal for IBF title fight

According to Dan Rafael at ESPN, the purse bid scheduled for today for a vacant IBF middleweight title fight between Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Daniel Jacobs was canceled, as the two sides have told the sanctioning body that they’ve made a deal.

This means that at some point in the near future, we’ll find out when and where these two will fight for the belt that was recently stripped from Gennady Golovkin. It’s a good fight, and one boxing fans should be excited about, even if you think Golovkin being stripped was nonsense.

Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KO) was Golovkin’s mandatory challenger and his team tried to force their way into GGG’s May 3 date when Canelo Alvarez dropped out, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Golovkin fought Vanes Martirosyan, and the IBF didn’t sanction their title to be defended in that fight. Shortly after, they stripped GGG.

The 32-year-old former amateur standout for Ukraine last fought on March 3, in a stay-busy fight against veteran Dashon Johnson, winning when Johnson was stopped after six rounds. His biggest win as a pro came last August, when he stopped Tureano Johnson in the 12th round.

Jacobs (34-2, 29 KO) is the bigger name here and will be the favorite going in. The 31-year-old “Miracle Man” gave Golovkin all he could handle in March 2017, and since then has scored back-to-back wins over Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki.

HBO will televise the fight when it all gets put together, as they have a deal with Jacobs and have expressed interest in this bout.