By Jim Dower: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) spoke to the boxing media on Tuesday to discuss their March 18 fight on HBO PPV at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jacobs says he wants to “shock the world” and “I’m pretty sure I’ll be victorious” against Golovkin.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler revealed at the press conference that unbeaten WBC super-flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez will be facing #2 WBC challenger Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in the co-feature bout on the card.
Loeffler said Rungvisai is the toughest opponent there is for Gonzalez. I think Carlos Cuadras would have something to say about that, as he beat Rungvisai by an 8th round technical decision in 2014. Cuadras had no problems winning that fight. The boxing fans would refer to see Gonzalez fight Cuadras again rather than Rungvisai, who has padded resume of a lot of weak opposition.
Golovkin and Jacobs have a combined knockout record of 35 consecutive knockouts going for them. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the knockouts have come against high level fighters. There’s been a fair share of easy marks among the bunch. I’d say precious have been what you can call good fighters. However, Jacobs stopped Sergio Mora and Peter Quillin recently, and that shows that he’s capable of beating known fighters.
Golovkin has past knockout wins over Daniel Geale, David Lemieux, Marco Antonio Rubio, and Martin Murray. Golovkin’s quick knockout win over Rubio was especially impressive, because the Mexican fighter had never been knocked out like that before.
Golovkin said this to the media about his fight against Jacobs on 3/18:
“I believe Daniel is ready for this fight. I have four belts. This is the dream for everybody,” said Golovkin. “It is very important for us [to see] who is number one in the middleweight division and who is the best.”
The Golovkin-Jacobs fight is being sold as a fight involving the two best middleweights in the division. Saul Canelo Alvarez hasn’t yet made the move up to 160 at the full weight. Canelo is someone that will eventually be competing with the winner of the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight at some point. WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders is someone that has to be in the mix for the best fighter in the middleweight division.
Jacobs said this about his fight against Golovkin:
“This is the fight that I have always wanted. This is the pinnacle that you could possibly reach to consider yourself the best,” said Jacobs. “I have the utmost respect for Gennady and his team. I believe that these guys are the best in the middleweight division and I have to come to prove to the world – and to shock the world – that I am the best. If I am 100 per cent mentally and physically prepared there is going to be a new undisputed middleweight champion of the world.”