By Allan Fox: WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) thinks Kell “Special K” Brook (36-0, 25 KOs) has put on too much weight and is over his head so to speak in his title fight against unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) on September 10 at the O2 arena in London, England.
Jacobs sees the 30-year-old Brook as a talented fighter, but he thinks he’s put too much weight on in bulking up to 176lbs, and believes that Golovkin simply hits too hard for him to deal with.
Jacobs points out that Brook is weighing more than him right now, and he’s a natural middleweight and not someone that has been fighting in the welterweight division his entire career.
“As long as he’s not making him fight at a catch-weight,” said Jacobs to Thaboxingvoice.com about Golovkin fighting welterweight Kell Brook. “The catch-weights don’t fly with me. You’ve got to give Kell Brook credit for coming to fight. I don’t think he’s going to win. I think he’s too big and he’s over his head; although he is very talented,” said Jacobs.
When asked what he thought of Brook weighing 176 pounds for the World Boxing Council’s recent mandated 30-day weigh-in, Jacobs said, “Yeah, I was pretty shocked. That’s my natural weight [176lbs]. He’s actually heavier than I am right now. So I think he’s trying to bulk up a little bit. Kell Brook is a talented guy. He’s too over his head just because of the weight and power,” said Jacobs.
Either Brook or his trainer Dominic Ingle came up with the idea of bulking up for the GGG fight. Someone thought up that idea. If doesn’t work out right the gaining of the weight, it’s going to be a good lesson for Brook and/or Ingle. It’s not smart to put that much weight in such a short period of time for an important fight like the one he’s undertaking against Triple G.
Brook seems to have his mind made up that he’s making the right decision in bulking up the way he’s doing for this fight. He thinks the added weight is going to make him stronger without causing him to lose hand speed and hurting his endurance. It’s probably impossible for a fighter to put on as much weight as Brook is putting on and it not slowing him down. Something has got to give when you put that much weight on.
Jacobs will be defending his WBA title next month against former World Boxing Association junior middleweight champion Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora (28-4-1, 9 KOs) on September 9 on Premier Boxing Champions at the Santander Arena, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Jacobs beat Mora by a 2nd round injury stoppage last year in August 2015 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Jacob’s management chose to do a rematch rather than moving him forward for better fights. Facing Mora again is a safe fight for Jacobs and an easy payday. There are guys out there in the middleweight division that would Jacobs a lot of problems with their power. By fighting Mora again, it at leaves puts off the threat from the other contenders for a little while at least. Jacobs could wind up as Golovkin’s next opponent for December if the WBA orders that fight. Jacobs and his manager Al Haymon would then need to make a decision whether to keep the WBA title and take the fight with GGG or vacate the belt to avoid the fight. It would make Jacobs look bad if he vacated his WBA title, but at least he would be able to keep from getting knocked out again. Jacobs was already knocked out by Russian Dmitry Pirog in 2010 in a 6th round stoppage. Jacobs never avenged that loss, and he’s only fought one good fighter since then in Peter Quillin, who he knocked out in round one last December. The other guys that Jacobs have fought have been largely mediocre middleweight fighters like Sergio Mora, Caleb Truax, Jarrod Fletcher, Miton Nunez, Giovanni Lorenzo, Keenan Collins, Chris Fitzpatrick, Josh Luteran, Robert Kliewer and Jesse Orta. Those are all the fighters that Jacobs have fought in the last six years besides his fight against Quillin. For that reason, I think it’s quite possible Jacobs might decide to vacate his WBA title if the WBA pushes him to fight GGG in 2016.