By Allan Fox: WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) has three very good Eastern European sparring partners in camp to help him prepare for his March 18 fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) on HBO PPV. The three middleweight sparring partners are as follows: Avtandil Khurtsidze (32-2-2, 21 KOs), Sergiy Derevyanchenko (9-0, 7 KOs), and Ievgen Khytrov (14-0, 12 KOs).
They’re from Eastern Europe, but all very different from Golovkin. The styles, power and more importantly, the talent is different between them and GGG. It’s unclear how much the 29-year-old Jacobs can improve in having these guys in camp.
Khurtsidze, 37, is arguably the best of the three, but he’s nothing like Golovkin. He has big power, but he’s very slow and short at 5’7”. Khurtsidze was recently leapfrogged by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the World Boxing Organization middleweight rankings. The WBO let Canelo move ahead of No.1 Khurtsidze to become the #1 mandatory challenger for WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders.
Canelo may end up facing Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in May rather than Saunders. If that happens, it’s going to be interesting to see if the WBO allows Canelo to keep the No.1 spot or if they’ll turn around and let Khurtsidze take the title shot against Saunders.
Jacobs is training for 10 weeks for the Golovkin fight in he’ll be using Khurtsidze, Derevyanchenko, and Khytrov much of the time as his sparring partners.
Jacobs’ adviser Keith Connolly said this to RingTV.com about the use of the three Eastern European sparring partners to help Jacobs for the Golovkin fight:
“We think they can emulate Golovkin’s style better than anybody out there,” said Connolly. “They’re from the (former) Russian system and they’re all top middleweights. Besides Danny and GGG, I don’t think there’s anyone out there even in the Top 10 who can really compete with those guys. The fact that they’re from (the former) Russian amateur program, a lot of these guys have the same type of style and I think just psychologically, it will be good for Danny to be in with them.”
The 31-year-old Derevyanchenko recently stopped 43-year-old former middleweight world champion Sam Soliman in the 2nd round of their fight last July. Soliman’s previously injured knee didn’t look strong in that fight. If this had been the Soliman before he injured his knee a couple of years ago, I think he might have beaten Derevyanchenko, as the Russian looked very slow and wasn’t throwing a lot of punches. Derevyanchenko is nothing like Golovkin. He’s a very different fighter.
Derevyanchenko, 5’9”, has more in common with the 5’9” Canelo Alvarez than he does Golovkin, because they don’t fight the same way and they’re not same size. Derevyanchenko isn’t known for having a high volume pressure attack like GGG. Derevyanchenko fought in the 2008 Olympics for Russia. Derevyanchenko was eliminated in his second match of the Olympics in getting soundly beaten by Cuban Emiloio Correa Jr. by an 18-4 score. At 31, Derevyanchenko is going to need to speed up his pro boxing career if he’s to go anywhere before he ages out and becomes too old to do anything at the world level.
Khytrov fought in the 2012 Olympics for Ukraine. However, he lost his first match to Britain’s Anthony Ogogo and was eliminated. The 28-year-old Khytrov is very different from Golovkin as well. Khytrov is very slow and deliberate with his attacks. He doesn’t charge full steam ahead the way that Triple G does, and he’s very easy to hit. Khytrov recently beat Paul Mendez by a 9th round knockout. Khytrov is still facing lower level opposition at this point in his career.
It’s debatable whether Khytrov will go anywhere with his pro career. His lack of hand speed and his slow plodding style of fighting is going to make it very difficult for him to accomplish much at the pro level. As far as helping Jacobs get ready for Golovkin, Khytrov is going to be of minimal use. If Jacobs was fighting a glacially slow middleweight instead of Golovkin on March 18, then Khytrov might be useful for him. That’s not going to be the case though. Khytrov will be fighting early next month on January 14 against Immanuwel Aleem. I wouldn’t be surprised if Khytrov loses that fight.
Jacobs might have been better off hiring some good U.S middleweights and having them emulate Golovkin’s fighting style rather than hiring three Eastern European fighters that are nothing like Golovkin. There are a lot of athletic middleweights that could do a better job of preparing Jacobs than the three slow, small guys that he hired to pressure him for this fight against GGG.
Maybe Jacobs can be helped in dealing with Golovkin’s wide hooks that he likes to throw. I’m betting the three Eastern European sparring partners that he’s hired will help him in getting ready for those shots, but anyone could help Jacobs get ready for those kinds of punches. It’s not rocket science.
Preparation doesn’t always help Jacobs, as we saw in his fight against Dmitry Pirog in 2010. Despite Jacobs having a thorough training camp to get ready for Pirog’s Eastern European fighting style, he was still able to knock Jacobs out in the 5th round. What we learned in watching that fight was that Jacobs doesn’t deal with pressure very well. He had the same problems in his fights against Sergio Mora (first fight) and Ishe Smith when those guys came forward and put heavy pressure on him.
Jacobs would be better off keeping Khurtsidze and finding a couple of good U.S middleweights to replace the other two Eastern European fighters. Khurtsidze is by far the best of the sparring partners that Jacobs has in his camp in my opinion. Khurtsidze is a big puncher, excellent at fighting at close quarters, and he’s a very good pressure fighter. I rate Khurtsidze as a better fighter than Jacobs. I think he’s someone that would walk Jacobs down and knock him out much like he did in his 10th round stoppage win over Antoine Douglas last March.
Jacobs might be better off doing a lot of track work to get ready for Golovkin in terms of conditioning. Jacobs’ best chance of beating Golovkin is to stay on the move for 12 rounds, and try and win on points by stealing rounds with quick pot shots. If Jacobs can run, hold and land fast pot shots, he could win a close/controversial decision over Golovkin. The fight is taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York. This means the crowd will likely be on Jacobs’ side all night. If the judges are the type that score based on crowd noise rather than on what’s taking place inside the ring, then they could give Jacobs a controversial decision if he can do try and steal rounds.