By Patrick McHugh: A week after saying that he doesn’t want to fight IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for another year and a half, WBA World 160lb champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) is now calling Golovkin out on social media. Jacobs says he would like to fight Golovkin in his own hometown of Brooklyn, New York.
Golovkin might be interested in facing Jacobs in 2016 after he takes care of business against contender Chris Eubank Jr. Jacobs is going to have to fight Golovkin sooner or later anyway. It would be better for him to do it sooner rather than later.
“Let’s do it … ME vs GGG!” said Jacobs on his social media site.
It would be great if Jacobs is actually interested in fighting GGG and not looking to wait close to two years before making the fight. Jacobs needs to realize that nothing is going to change with him waiting to fight Golovkin in late 2017. Jacobs won’t be any more popular than he is now, especially if he’s content with fighting guys like Sergio Mora. That’s who Jacobs will likely be fighting next on July 30. For a fight between Jacobs and Golovkin to be a bigger affair, it will require that Jacobs start fighting better opposition unless he’s content in taking the fight this year with his current popularity such as it is.
“I would like to fight Gennady in Brooklyn, but no matter where, it’s the biggest match of skillful middleweights that can happen,” said Jacobs to Premier Boxing Champions. “I know there are questions about some people doing business together, but I think it’s a situation that’s workable for the greater good of boxing.”
Golovkin probably doesn’t gain a lot from fighting Jacobs right now because he’s already the WBA champion. Jacobs is the WBA “regular” middleweight champion. That’s a junior version of the WBA title. It’s too bad the World Boxing Association doesn’t completely get rid of their two champions at 160, because it just confuses people.
None of Golovkin’s opponents have gone the distance with him since 2008. You have to believe that Jacobs would wind up as yet another knockout victim if that fight does take place.
Jacobs picked up his biggest win of his career last December in stopping former WBO 160lb belt holder Peter Quillin in the 1st round in their “Battle of Brooklyn” at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Here’s what Jacobs said to Fighthype.com about his thoughts on fighting Golovkin: “Triple G is going to come at the right time. When it does come, it’s going to be right for me on all aspects, and that’s the only reason the fight hasn’t been made. It will happen very soon. I would say in the next year and a half or something to that effect. I want to collect belts, and then go for the gusto. It’ll be worth a lot more as opposed to just doing it right now. I’ll fight anyone in the world, and I want to fight Triple G. My thing was, I wanted to get BJ Saunders or possibly Canelo, and then go for Triple G.”
Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, probably wouldn’t agree to fight a knockout artist like Jacobs. He’s too tall at 6-feet, and he’s not willing to drain down to 155 to fight Canelo. Jacobs completely ruled out fighting Canelo at a catch-weight; not that he was asked by Golden Boy Promotions or anything. Jacobs says he wouldn’t fight Canelo at a catch-weight, because he feels that he should fight him at the full weight of 160lbs for the middleweight division.
Getting WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders to agree to a fight against Jacobs would probably require a lot of money. It doesn’t make sense for Saunders to take the fight against Jacobs if it’s not a fight that will make him a lot of money. With Jacobs not being a PPV attraction in the U.S, it would require that Showtime or Premier Boxing Champions to come up with a lot of money to convince Saunders into taking the fight. I don’t think he’ll do it for just for the sake of winning the WBA title off Jacobs, because he’s not seen as the real WBA champion in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. If Saunders won the WBA “regular” title off Jacobs, he’d be getting a lower level belt compared to the one GGG has at the moment.