By Dan Ambrose: IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin isn’t the only interested observer who will be watching this Saturday’s contest between WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs) and Billy Joe Saunders (22-0, 12 KOs). WBA World “Regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) will be watching the fight, and he hopes to face the winner of the fight next.
However, Jacobs is rooting for the 31-year-old Lee to beat Saunders, because he sees that as a potentially bigger fight for him than a fight against Saunders.
Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions are interested in the outcome of the Lee-Saunders fight, because they too would like to face the winner of that fight. Golovkin has time to kill and a fight to burn up due to the World Boxing Council recently ruling this week on Monday that WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez can take a voluntary defense in the first quarter of 2016 before he sits down with Golovkin’s promoter Loeffler to see if they can iron out a fight between the two stars.
In the meantime, Golovkin wants to fight the winner of the Lee vs. Saunders fight so that he can capture another one of the middleweight titles and add it to his collection. If Golovkin can beat the winner of the Lee-Saunders fight, it would give him three of the four world middleweight titles. The only title not in his possession would be the WBC belt held by Canelo.
“I’m excited for the winner of Lee vs. Saunders,” Jacobs said. “I’m rooting for Andy Lee because I think that’s a bigger fight for me. Doing something in the U.S. between the two of us would make a lot of sense. He has a huge following here in New York, just like me obviously. It would be a classic showdown that Brooklyn would appreciate.”
A fight between Jacobs and Lee would be a big deal in New York, because Lee has a large Irish fan base of there. It would also be a fight that would be a 50-50 affair. It’s a better match-up for Lee than it would be for him to face Golovkin in a unification fight.
The only thing that’s unclear is whether Lee can get past Saunders. It’s not a given that Lee wins. Saunders might like the idea of fighting Jacobs, because he sees him as a beatable fighter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXtorXZh4FA
“May the best man win between the two of them, but if Andy wins I think it would be very interesting for both of us,” Jacobs said.
Chris Eubank Jr, the WBA mandatory challenger to Jacobs, wants the fight with him next, and his promoter Eddie Hearn wants that fight next. Hearn will be pushing for that fight to happen as soon as possible. The only way Jacobs could get out of the fight is if the World Boxing Association gives him permission to fight a unification fight against the winner of the Saunders vs. Lee fight.
Jacobs is in a good position to get a good fight for his next fight no matter what happens this Saturday. Jacobs either will get the winner of the Lee-Saunders fight, or he’ll face his WBA mandatory challenger Eubank Jr. It’s all good for Jacobs.
Earlier this month, Jacobs stopped former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin in the 1st round on December 5th at the “Battle of Brooklyn” at the Barclays Center in New York. Jacobs hurt Quillin with a right hand and then flurried on him until Quillin staggered across the ring and was stopped by the referee Harvey Dock.
It was a real surprise ending because many boxing fans saw Quillin as the favorite in the contest. It looked like Quillin didn’t take Jacobs serious, because he started out far too quickly by not showing Jacobs any respect by going directly at him.
Jacobs has the punching power to make it tough on the winner of the Lee vs. Saunders fight. But we’ve already seen Jacobs lose in the past to Dmitry Pirog five years ago in their fight in 2010. It’s hard to know if Jacobs has improved in the last five years because he’s not faced anyone really good since then. Quillin is a good fighter, but he showed no respect for Jacobs by starting out so aggressively.
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