By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) retained his titles with a narrow 12 round unanimous decision to Daniel Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) on Saturday night in their fight on HBO pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York. The final judge’s scores were 115-112, 115-112 and 114-113. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 8 rounds to 4 in favor of Golovkin. Jacobs was knocked down by a right hand from Golovkin in round 4.
Golovkin didn’t go after Jacobs the way that he should have. Golovkin was too relaxed after dropping Jacobs, and he let him off the hook by now going after him the way he had his previous opponents.
Golovkin also had Jacobs badly hurt at the end of round 9. Jacobs was fortunate to survive that round because he was badly hurt.
There were a lot of narrow rounds that could have gone either way, but Golovkin was the one coming forward initiating the action. The judges obviously were more impressed with GGG pushing the fight in forward gear.
Golovkin did the better work in rounds 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the first half of the fight
Jacobs was upset at the end of the fight, saying that he should haven. However, Jacobs only has himself to blame for losing. He was fighting too passively all throughout the fight by moving, holding and not letting his hands go. Jacobs should have known that he wasn’t going to win the fight by running around the ring. It was really bad to watch.
“I think I won the fight,” said Jacobs afterwards. “I think I won it by at least 2 rounds. I didn’t feel that he was ahead at the end. He’s a bigger draw than me. I know they want Canelo vs. Golovkin,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs was saying basically that Golovkin only won the fight because boxing wants to see him fight Canelo. That’s obviously not the way judges think. The judges scored the fight fairly by giving the rounds to the guy that was initiating the action. Golovkin did the better work in most of the rounds. Jacobs should blame himself for getting knocked down in round 4 and getting hurt in the 9th. If he blame someone for his loss, he needs to look in the mirror. If you want to win a fight, you don’t win it by getting knocked down. That’s the whole problem.
In between many of the rounds, Jacobs’ trainer Andre Rozier was talking about wanting him to box and win using finesse. That passive approach to fighting probably wrecked Jacobs’ chances of winning because he fought a negative fight instead of a positive one. You don’t win fights by running around the ring, holding and focusing almost entirely on boxing. You win by going after your opponent the way that Golovkin did.
“I need box. I want decision,” said Golovkin after the fight. “I’m a boxer, not a killer. I respect the game,” said Golovkin.
When asked if he’ll give Jacobs a rematch, Golovkin said, “Of course, this is box. I give him chance for rematch. Of course, I’m ready.”
Golovkin likely won’t be fighting Jacobs next, however. Golovkin could face WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in a unification fight in June in his home country of Kazakhstan. After that, Golovkin could wind up facing Saul Canelo Alvarez in September in a huge mega-fight.
Golovkin will need to fight with a lot more urgency in his next two fights if he wants to come out of them the winner. He cannot fight in the same style as he did tonight, because the judges might wind up scoring the fight against him, especially against a popular guy like Canelo.