Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs possible for December 10

By Boxing News - 09/22/2016 - Comments

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By Patrick McHugh: The management for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and World Boxing Association “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs are in negotiations for a fight that they’re reportedly looking at stage on December 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The Golovkin-Jacobs fight would likely be televised on HBO championship Boxing. It’s doubtful that it will be a big enough affair for it to make it on HBO pay-per-view unless they insist on it.

WBA president Gilberto Mendoza wants to reduce the amount of titles with his organization, so he is having Golovkin, who holds the WBA “Super World” middleweight title, take on WBA “World” 160lb champion. It’s just one more step that Golovkin has to take before he can move forward to try and get a unification fight against the last remaining middleweight belt holder in WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders. Golovkin’s management has doubts whether Saunders is seriously interested in wanting to fight Golovkin in a unification match. For that reason, Golovkin won’t waste too much on Saunders before moving on to look for other fights.

“They are negotiating. Already, Jacobs’ handlers have sent an offer – the numbers – to [Golovkin’s promoter] Tom Loeffler. That’s what I’ve heard,” said Mendoza to skysports.com. “I’m waiting. There will be a time, if nothing happens, then we will call for purse bids. I’m looking forward to having one champion in the division. I hope that by this time next year, we will have one champion in each division.”

If the negotiations fail to reach an agreement within 30 days, then Mendoza will order the purse bid. It doesn’t mean the fight will happen though. If Golovkin or Jacobs’ management decide not to agree to the fight, then the WBA will likely strip them of their title. It would be one way to save a step of having a needless fight. Golovkin doesn’t want to lose one of his three 160lb titles though, considering he’s trying to capture all four of the middleweight belts. He’s already got his hands full trying to get a fight against WBO middleweight champion Saunders. That might not ever happen unfortunately. Saunders can sit on the title, facing whoever until he eventually gets beaten by one of the contenders in the WBO’s top 15. It would be in Saunders’ best interest to try and cash out before then.

It would be a pity if he winds up getting beaten in a small money fight by WBO contenders like Avtandil Khurtsidze, Ryota Murata, David Lemieux, Hassan N’Dam or Willie Monroe Jr.
Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) has a nice ring record, but he’s not been facing high quality opposition during his career since his loss to Dmitry Pirog six years ago. Jacobs is fighting decent level guys and former paper champions, but no one really talented. It’s impossible to know how Jacobs will do against a fighter like Golovkin considering the poor opposition he’s been facing. Here are the fighters that Jacobs has fought in his last nine fights: Sergio Mora [x 2], Peter Quillin, Caleb Truax, Jarrod Fletcher, Milton Nunez, Giovanni Lorenzo, Keenan Collins, and Chris Fitzpatrick.

Golovkin wants to fight Golden Boy Promotions star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, but that fight will need to wait until 2017 if not later. Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya wants Canelo to get in a couple of warm-up fights at 160 in early 2017 before facing Golovkin in 2017 in a big money fight. However, the fight between Golovkin and Canelo might not take place at all in 2017 if Golden Boy can’t come to an agreement in the negotiations with Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loefler. In that case, Canelo will continue fighting other fighters and making good money doing so. With a lot of boxing fans excited about the potential for a Canelo-Golovkin fight in the future, they’re eagerly purchasing Canelo’s fights on HBO pay-per-view against arguably lesser fighters like Liam Smith, Amir Khan, and Alfredo Angulo. You can expect Canelo to continue to face this level of opposition in the future, as long as the boxing fans are willing to pay to see him fight them. There’s no reason for Canelo to take risky fights when the fans are willing to pay to see him fight against safe opponents.