By Eric Baldwin: Earlier tonight, middleweight champions Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs met up at the New York Knicks vs. New Orleans Pelicans basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York. This is the same venue that the unbeaten Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) will be fighting at on March 18 on HBO pay-per-view.
They’re meeting tonight was to help drum up interest in their fight on HBO in two months from now.
(Photo Credit/Rebecca Taylor, Dave Saffran—MSG Photos)
Golovkin, 34, was wearing a baseball cap, and he looked in good shape. The 6’0” Jacobs seemed to have a little size advantage over Golovkin when the two were standing across from each other. It should be interesting to see if the size helps Jacobs or not when they start throwing punches at each other.
Jacobs’ size helped him against Peter Quillin and Sergio Mora, his last two opponents. Those aren’t super talented fighters though. Quillin was a decent fighter during his best years, but his career had slowed to a crawl by the time he fought Jacobs.
Golovkin meet one of the Knicks players named Kristaps Porzingis. They posed for photos.
On March 18, Golovkin is going to be going after Jacobs looking to knock him out as fast as possible. If Jacobs’ chin hasn’t improved any sine his knockout loss to Pirog, then this fight could end very quickly.
Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez will have briefed him well in Jacobs’ weaknesses, and you can expect him to be looking to hit him as hard as possible to the head to see if he can recreate a knockout like the one Pirog did. Jacobs was out cold after getting knocked out by Pirog. If Golovkin hits Jacobs on the button with one of his big shots, the fight could be over quickly.
The Golovkin-Jacobs fight will be officially announced this Tuesday on Jan.10 in a press conference at MSG. The two middleweights will be facing each other on Mar.18 on HBO PPV. The Golovkin vs. Jacobs start time is at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. ET. It should be a good fight. Golovkin has 23 consecutive knockouts, and he’s looking to make Jacobs his 24th.
Jacobs has stopped his last 12 opponents since losing to Dmitri Pirog in 2010. It’s impressive that Jacobs has knocked out every opponent he’s faced since the loss to Pirog. But, as Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez likes to point out, Jacobs hasn’t been fighting anyone in Golovkin’s caliber in the last seven years since his loss to Pirog.
Jacobs’ wins have come against Sergio Mora, Quillin, Caleb Truax, Jarrod Fletcher, Milton Nunez, Giovanni Lorenzo, Keenan Collins, Chris Fitzpatrick, Josh Literan, Robert Klieer, and Jesse Orta. Jacobs’ opposition are mostly guys that any contender in the top 15 would beat. The only guy that would give the contenders problems is Quillin, and at this point, it’s hard to know how much he has left in the tank. Andy Lee appeared to beat Quillin in their fight in 2015, but he had to settle for a 12 round draw.
It’s good that Golovkin gets to fight someone with punching power and the ability to come forward and make a fight of it in Jacobs. This will at least make the fight interesting for a change. Golovkin’s last two fights against Kell Brook and Dominic Wade weren’t fights, because neither of these guys had the punching power to make it a competitive affair.
Some boxing fans think Kell Brook gave Golovkin problems. But if you look at the fight, Brook only did well in the 2nd round. He was either running or getting hurt in rounds 1, 3, 4 & 5. Those weren’t competitive rounds. Those were rounds where Brook was fleeing from Golovkin.
Jacobs needs to try and make it a fight against Golovkin, because this might be his only chance of his boxing career to get a big fight.
If this is Jacobs’ 15 minutes of fame, then he needs to make the most of it by trying to beat Golovkin by taking the fight to him the way he did in his win over Quillin. Once Jermall Charlo moves up in weight to middleweight, he’ll likely take Jacobs’ spot as the second best fighter in the division. Saul Canelo Alvarez is moving up in weight too to 160, but it’s hard to take him serious as one of the top guys, because his promoters at Golden Boy seem more interested in putting him in with lesser quality fighters after their close call with Erislandy Lara.
Jacobs can prove that he belongs at the top of the division by beating Golovkin on March 18. If Jacobs can beat Golovkin, then it will put him in position for a fight against Canelo. Jacobs needs to give it his best shot. He might get lucky and hurt Golovkin with one of his big fight hands like he did with Quillin. No one thought it possible that Jacobs could hurt Quillin like he did. Jacobs did it by being aggressive and bold.
Ticket prices for the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight, which is titled “Middlweight Madness,” are priced as follows:
$1000, $600, $400, $300, $200 and $100. The tickets can be purchased at the Madison Square Garden Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster charge by phone (866-858-0008) and online at www.ticketmaster.com or www.thegarden.com.