by Jim Dower: Former WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee is recommending that Daniel Jacobs rough Gennady Golovkin up as much as possible on Saturday night to throw him off his game. Lee, who will be fighting on the undercard, says Jacobs need to throw Golovkin around, tie him in clinches on the inside, and fight him at times.
Lee’s advice is for Jacobs to pick his spots in which he punches with Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs). He doesn’t think he should slug with him a lot, but just enough to make him realize he’s in a fight.
Lee says he won’t be surprised if Jacobs the fight because he feels it’s a competitive match between the two best fighters in the middleweight division. Lee (34-3-1, 24 KOs) says he wants to fight the winner of the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight if he wins his own fight against KeAndrae Leatherwood (19-3-1, 12 KOs) on the undercard. Lee-Leatherwood is fighting an 8 round fight. The 32-year-old Lee hasn’t fought in over a years since he lost to his WBO 160 lb. title to Billy Joe Saunders in 2015. Lee thinks that Saunders will give Golovkin his toughest test of his career. Lee and Saunders has sparring lately, and he’s really impressed with his boxing skills.
“On Saturday night, who wins Golovkin and Jacobs will tell who the king of the division is,” said Lee to Fighthub.com. “Whoever wins that’s who I’m aiming for. They’re two great fighters. It’s a great match-up. Either of them can win it. For me, it’s about winning on Saturday night and putting myself back in the frame. With a good victory on Saturday, I’ll be in line to face one of those guys, Jacobs-Golovkin. I’m ready to fight anybody. I don’t want to take away credit from Billy Joe Saunders, but I believe I over trained for the fight. I left the best of me in the gym. I want to remind people how good I actually am. On Saturday night, I’ll do that and go on,” said Lee.
Lee is going to need to do a lot more than beating Leatherwood for him to get a title shot against Golovkin. Lee could eventually get a title shot against Golovkin, but it’s a fight that is not on the immediate horizon for Triple G. Lee says he wants to fight three times in 2017. If Lee can do that without getting beaten again and/or injured, he should get a top 15 ranking by one or more of the sanctioning bodies. That should help Lee get an eventual title shot against Golovkin in 2018 or 2019. If Golovkin has nothing on his plate in the future, he might give Lee a title shot without him having to earn his way to the No.1 spot, which might take several years.
Speaking about Billy Joe Saunders, Lee said, “He could give Jacobs and Golovkin a lot of trouble. Golovkin wants to unify the division, but it’s a lot easier said than done. Billy Joe Saunders being a southpaw, he does things instinctively. I think he’d give Golovkin a very good fight. I think he gives Golovkin his best test,” said Lee.
As bad as Saunders looked in his last fight against Artur Akavov, he’s not going to give Golovkin or Jacobs any trouble at all. Saunders seems to have stamina problems that get in the way of him fighting hard for the full 12 rounds. At this point, Saunders will be lucky if he’s still the WBO middleweight champion by the end of 2017. There’s a chance that Saunders and Golovkin could wind up facing each other in June 2017. It would be a good fight, but Saunders would be a huge underdog due to his lack of punching power.
When asked about the Golovkin-Jacobs fight, Lee said, “I can see where he [Jacobs] can beat Golovkin if he boxes and fights. I think if he tries to rough Golovkin up a little bit; give him back what he does to other people. [He needs to] Fight him at times, and get back and box and be smooth. When he gets in close, tie him up, rough him up, and try to maintain that for 12 rounds. It’s easier said than done. Whether he can do it, that’s the way you’ve got to be with Golovkin. That’s all I can see. You’ve got to fight him the way he fights people,” said Lee.
Since Jacobs has never used roughing up as a tactic in any of his fights, it’s difficult to picture him doing it well enough against Golovkin to gain any real advantage using this. Golovkin has fought guys that have used holding as a tactic to smother his offense. It didn’t work for them, and it’s not likely to work for Jacobs. If he wants to beat Golovkin, he should try and fight him and see how that goes. Using a smothering approach to beating Golovkin, it’s unlikely to work, and it might spoil Jacobs’ very real chance of winning the fight. Jacobs can use his size and fast hands to win the fight with GGG. Employing roughhouse tactics could backfire on him, and prevent him from being at his best in the fight.
In talking about his thoughts on a victory for Jacobs over Golovkin, Lee said, “It would be an upset, but I wouldn’t be surprised. He has to box and he has to fight. He has to rough him up. He has to hold him, tie him up, throw him around, and he has to get the respect from him,” said Lee.
Golovkin was beaten in the 2004 Olympics by a Russian fighter that used holding as the main technique to winning the fight. The Russian fighter was throwing Golovkin around the ring. At the pro level, it’s not likely that Jacobs would get away with tossing Golovkin around the ring the way that the Russian fighter Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov did against him.
“I want to win the title again,” said Lee. “I did it once. I can do it again. I know I can. I could have 3 fights this year,” said Lee.
If Lee is going to win another world title, he’ll need to get a shot against Saunders, because he’s the weak link right now at 160. Saunders, however, is not in the position to give Lee a voluntary defense. As I mentioned previously, Saunders could be facing Golovkin in June. If Saunders still has his WBO title in the second half of this year, then he’ll need to defend it against his #1 WBO mandatory challenger Avtandil Khurtsidze. That’s going to be a tough enough fight on it’s own for Saunders. Lee will likely need to go through Golovkin for him to have a chance of trying to win a world title.