Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Ryota Murata fight prediction, undercard, odds, start time, live stream, expert pick

While every fighter has reason to want to win every fight, Gennadiy Golovkin enters Saturday’s bout with Ryota Murata with millions upon millions more reasons than most. As long as Golovkin can beat Murata and unify the IBF and WBA middleweight championships, he’s set for a massive trilogy bout with Canelo Alvarez to end the year. That, of course, assumes that Alvarez is also able to beat Dmitry Bivol on May 7.

Murata is far from a pushover and should not be treated as a mere bump in the road en route to Golovkin vs. Alvarez 3. Also, Murata has the home-ring advantage, with the fight taking place from Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan (5:10 a.m. ET, DAZN).

In 18 professional fights, Murata has suffered two losses, though he decisively avenged both. Murata lost a fight for the WBA regular title, a secondary belt for the sanctioning body, to Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in May 2017. That October, Murata avenged that split decision by forcing N’Jikam’s corner to throw in the towel after seven rounds.

His second defeat played out much the same way, with Rob Brant taking a decision in October 2018 only for Murata to come back in their rematch the following July with a relentless attack of power punches that forced a second-round stoppage.

Golovkin turns 40 on Friday and is likely in the final years of his time as a top-tier fighter. Knowing that, it’s all the more important that Golovkin manages to get past a resilient, hard-charging fighter in Murata.

Golovkin rode the momentum of 37 straight wins to open his career, most by knockout, to land his first fight with Alvarez. Despite it seeming Golovkin had done enough to get the win, the fight ended in a split draw, with acceptable scorecards of 115-113 for Golovkin and a 114-114 draw offset by a baffling 118-110 card was turned in for Alvarez.

The second fight, which was just as good, if not better than the first, also saw controversy. Alvarez…