By Dan Ambrose: WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs’ trainer Andre Rozier reportedly believes that Jacobs has the goods to defeat IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “Triple G” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) when or if a fight between the two of them ever takes place in the future.
Golovkin is said to be very, very interested in facing Jacobs, but thus far, he’s never had the opportunity to get the 28-year-old American into the ring. Jacobs is coming off of a career best 1st round knockout win over former WBO 160lb champion Peter Quillin in his last fight in December. Jacobs basically jumped on Quillin and took him out with a flurry of heavy shots after hurting him with a right hand.
“Yes,” Rozier said to RingTV.com. “I see Danny has the necessary ammunition (to beat Golovkin.) I know he can do it; now he KNOWS he can do it. Big time. We will ascend to that level; he will show he’s truly one of the best middleweights on the planet,” Rozier said.
If Rozier believes that Jacobs would really beat Golovkin, then he might want to call up Jacobs’ manager Al Haymon and impress upon him the need for Jacobs to fight Golovkin in his next fight. After all, if Rozier really thinks that Jacobs can whip Golovkin, then he should be willing to put up or shut up. If Jacobs is good enough to beat Golovkin then he should be doing it rather than wasting time fighting guys like Quillin, Sergio Mora, Caleb Truax and Jarrod Fletcher.
It’s time that Jacobs steps up a level and starts facing the better opposition in the 160lb division. Beating Quillin was obviously a good start for Jacobs in finally cutting his teeth on a quality fighter, but he needs to keep that momentum going by putting some head under Haymon’s backside for him to setup a fight against Golovkin.
I’m sure that Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler would literally leap out of his boots at the thought of putting together a fight between Golovkin and Jacobs for April 23. Golovkin needs a high quality opponent for this date on HBO Championship Boxing, and right now the pickings are looking pretty slim for him. The IBF just ordered Golovkin to fight his IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade, who you can argue is little more than another Willie Monroe Jr. type of fighter. I actually think Wade is a step down from Monroe for Golovkin.
“As for next, I don’t think we’re going after (WBO titlist Billy Joe) Saunders,” Rozier said. “We’re going again in May. Might be (Alfonso Blanco) [or] a young man [Chris Eubank Jr.] from England, his father was world-class; he lost to BJ.”
Eubank Jr. recently defeated Gary O’Sullivan in a WBA middleweight title eliminator to become the mandatory challenger to Jacobs. It was thought at the time that Eubank Jr. would face Jacobs next, but it’s now unclear whether that fight will happen next. Fighting #1 WBA Alfonso Blanco (12-0, 5 KOs) would be a decent fight but not a great one for Jacobs. Blanco isn’t a big puncher and he’s totally untested. I’d much rather see Jacobs fight Eubank Jr. or Golovkin. Of course, I don’t see either of those fights happening anytime soon.
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