By Keith Idec

The Sergiy Derevyanchenko-Daniel Jacobs fight appears headed to a different date and site.

BoxingScene.com has learned negotiations are nearing completion for the Derevyanchenko-Jacobs bout to take place October 27 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. October 27 was a potential date when promoters Eddie Hearn (Jacobs) and Lou DiBella (Derevyanchenko) reached an agreement moments before this IBF-mandated middleweight championship match went to purse bid July 10.

Soon thereafter, November 10 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, emerged as the favored date and venue for Derevyanchenko-Jacobs. Peter Nelson, HBO Sports’ executive vice president, recently requested that Hearn and DiBella schedule that fight for October 27.

HBO will air Derevyanchenko-Jacobs as part of Jacobs’ contract with that premium cable network.

Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs) and Brooklyn’s Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs) will fight for the 160-pound championship the IBF stripped from Gennady Golovkin on June 6.

Derevyanchenko, 32, is the IBF’s top-ranked middleweight contender and was Golovkin’s mandatory challenger. Jacobs, 31, is rated No. 3 by the IBF, but he is its next available contender to battle Derevyanchenko because the No. 2 spot in its rankings is vacant.

The IBF took its 160-pound crown from Kazakhstan’s Golovkin because the New Jersey-based sanctioning organization ruled that Golovkin failed adhere to the stipulations of an exemption it granted him to fight Vanes Martirosyan on May 5 in Carson, California. The IBF refused to sanction Golovkin-Martirosyan as a title bout because Martirosyan, a late replacement for Canelo Alvarez, is a junior middleweight who hadn’t fought in nearly two years.

The IBF allowed Golovkin to keep its middleweight title as long as Golovkin agreed to defend it next against Derevyanchenko. Golovkin knocked out Martirosyan (36-4-1, 21 KOs) in the second round.

Two weeks later, the 36-year-old Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) requested another exemption at an IBF hearing May 22 in Newark, New Jersey, because he was headed toward a rescheduled rematch with Alvarez, since set for September 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Their rematch had been scheduled for May 5 at T-Mobile Arena, but that bout was canceled because the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) for twice testing positive for clenbuterol, a banned substance, in February.

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