Jacobs: I’m not afraid of Golovkin

By Boxing News - 01/12/2017 - Comments

Image: Jacobs: I'm not afraid of Golovkin

By Jeff Aranow: According to Daniel Jacobs, the opposition that Gennady “GGG” Golovkin faces is afraid of him before they enter the ring. They then fail to fight at the utmost of their ability due to their fear of the Kazakhstan fighter. Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) says he’s not afraid of him.

Jacobs saw flaws that were exposed by Kell Brook in Golovkin’s last fight on September 10. He says he’s going to face the bully and take advantage of those flaws in their fight on March 18 on HBO PPV at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Jacobs is still seen as the underdog despite his lack of fear of Triple G. The problem that Jacobs has is he has a history of being hurt in his fights. He also has a very thin resume of quality opposition since losing to Dmitri Pirog in 2010. You can give Jacobs a lot of credit for beating no name fighters, and that’s pretty much all he’s done since being blasted out by Pirog. He never avenged that loss, and it’s likely wouldn’t have been able to had he tried.
Jacobs said this to RingTV.com about his fight against Golovkin:

“There’s nothing about Gennady that intimidates me, there’s nothing about him that scares me,” said Jacobs. “We’re men. We both can be hurt and this is boxing. May the best man win. I’m a boxer-puncher and I have a really good chance.”

It looks like Jacobs is minimizing Golovkin by making it seem that there’s nothing there but a big bluff and a lot of intimidation. Jacobs appears to be saying that Golovkin wins on making his opponents afraid rather than him winning based on talent and punching power. By Jacobs reducing Golovkin to little more than a bully who wins on intimidation, he’s overlooking his obvious talent and his very real punching power. Golovkin is winning by what he’s doing to get the better of his opponents. He’s not scaring them into losing. He’s winning by hurting them.

If Jacobs starts slugging with Golovkin, it’ll be over quickly, because the New York fighter doesn’t seem to be able to take a decent shot without getting hurt. Jacobs’ chin problem has been disguised since his loss to Pirog due to the soft match-making done for him, but it’s still there. We saw it when the light hitting Sergio Mora hurt Jacobs in dropping him in the 1st round in their first fight in 2015. Jacobs was there for the taking if Mora had any kind of power or if he possessed the killer instinct to finish him off.

“It takes a real strong mind to take advantage of some of those holes we saw in Golovkin’s game against Brook,” Jacobs said. “Brook didn’t have the size, reach or power to do it. We knew he wouldn’t win but we also knew he’d expose some of Golovkin’s flaws.”

Jacobs is going to need to try and focus on his defense against Golovkin, because this fight could end very quickly once Golovkin lands anything of substance in the fight. Jacobs’ punch resistasnce is extremely shaky, and he could go literally in the 1st round if Golovkin hits him with anything. The boxing fans want this to be a good fight, but I have a feeling that it won’t. Having seen many of Jacobs’ last 12 fights, he’s been in with some very poor opposition that has helped cover up his own flaws. There’s no improvement from his loss to Pirog from what I can see.

Golovkin does have flaws. Can Jacobs cover up his own flaws enough to take advantage of Golovkin’s holes in his game? I don’t know. I would venture to guess that Jacobs’ flaws are far worse than any flaws that Golovkin has. Jacobs can’t take shots for some reason, and he seems to panic when he’s pressured. When you look at Jacobs’ past fights, he stresses out when he’s under attack. For Jacobs to go about taking advantage of Golovkin’s flaws, he’s going to need to put his chin on the line, and once that happens, he’s going to have a very good chance of being knocked out – again.

I think fear is good for fighters. The fact that Jacobs is saying he’s not afraid of Golovkin can be interpreted as him being foolhardy. Jacobs needs to be afraid. Golovkin has knocked out 23 straight opponents, and many of them had better chins than him. If Golovkin is able to stop fighters with superior punch resistance than Jacobs, then it means that the New York fighter is going to need to try and get to Golovkin as quick as possible on March 18 to try and knock him out before he lowers the boom on him.

If Golovkin has only won his last 36 fights due to his opponents being afraid of him before they entered the ring, then it doesn’t say much about him as a fighter. There’s got to be more to Golovkin than just intimidation. Is Jacobs simplifying the man and creating a cartoon image of him to boost his own courage? What happens to Jacobs when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin and finds out that he’s for real, and not a fake like he seems to think he is.