NEW YORK – Even Gennadiy Golovkin’s trainer thinks Sergiy Derevyanchenko deserved better than he fared on the three scorecards Saturday night.

Johnathon Banks told DAZN’s Claudia Trejos following Golovkin’s victory that he was surprised the three judges agreed Golovkin won their fantastic fight. When Michael Buffer began announcing the scores at Madison Square Garden, Banks expected to hear that it was a split decision.

Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) defeated Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) by unanimous decision because all three judges scored their unusually brutal, 12-round, 160-pound title fight for the 37-year-old Kazakhstan native.

Judges Frank Lombardi (115-112) and Eric Molinski (115-112) scored seven of the 12 rounds for Golovkin. Judge Kevin Morgan credited Golovkin and Dervyanchenko for winning six rounds apiece, but he had Golovkin in front, 114-113, when it ended because Golovkin knocked down Derevyanchenko during the first round.

“I don’t remember the exact scores, but I thought the fight was a lot closer than [the scores],” Banks told Trejos. “I remember hearing unanimous, and I thought the fight was a lot closer than that.”

CompuBox’s unofficial statistics indicated that their definite “Fight of the Year” candidate indeed was very close.

According to CompuBox, Golovkin out-landed Derevyanchenko by only 13 punches overall (243-of-720 to 230-of-738). CompuBox credited Derevyanchenko for landing more power punches (183-of-472 to 136-of-314) and Golovkin for connecting on more jabs (107-of-406 to 47-of-266).

While Banks was surprised the judges came to a complete agreement regarding who won, he anticipated a determined Derevyanchenko would come back from a first-round knockdown to give Golovkin the most difficult fight of his career. Golovkin’s trainer applauded the Ukrainian underdog’s ability to withstand the dangerous Golovkin’s power, among other things.

“I’ve been watching Derevyanchenko for a long time,” Banks said. “This is no walk in the park. Danny Jacobs fought [Derevyanchenko] tooth and nail. Everybody that fought this dude went through a slugfest. There’s a reason for that. You know, he’s the type of guy, he’s gonna force you to either quit or fight him back. That’s the only choice you have. I can’t say enough about this kid. I’ve been saying it from day one – this gonna be the hardest fight of Triple-G’s career. And, to me, it was.” 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.