Jacobs wants Saunders, then Golovkin

By Boxing News - 07/01/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World middleweight champion Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) says he wants to fight a unification match against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12 KOs) this year, and after he beats him, he wants to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Goovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) for all the marbles next year in the fall of 2017 in a pay-per-view fight. But first, Jacobs wants to take Saunders’ scalp and get some momentum by adding his WBO strap to his collection before looking to face the main man in the division in GGG.

Getting Saunders inside the ring may prove to be difficult for Jacobs, however, as Saunders has been sitting on his WBO title without defending it for the past seven months since winning it with a narrow 12 round decision victory over former champion Andy Lee last December.

Jacobs will be fighting on July 30 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Jacob’s opponent is expected to be Sergio Mora, who he stopped in the 2nd round last year in September.

At this point, Saunders STILL doesn’t have an opponent lined up for his first title defense of his WBO strap, and you have to wonder if he’s going to fight at all this year. There’s only give more months left in 2016, and I have the feeling that Saunders might not fight at all this year.

“If BJ Saunders would fight me, and I could get that WBO title, which I will, then it [a unification fight against Golovkin] would be more lucrative. That’s all I’m looking for,” said Jacobs to Abrams Boxing. “It’s to be compensated and taken care of. All I deserve is my just do,” said Jacobs.

I totally agree with Mr. Jacobs. If Saunders would just fight him instead of sitting on his WBO title like a mother hen sitting on eggs, then we could see these two fighters battling it out in a unification match. I mean, I don’t think Saunders would win, but at least he would have a chance to accomplish something really big if he did win.

Can you imagine the amount of attention Saunders would receive if he beat the 28-year-old Jacobs in a unification match? It would be a huge victory for Saunders, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it smoked out Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Miguel Cotto to get one of those guys to fight him. I can’t see Saunders turning up his nose for a fight against either of those guys, could you?

All Saunders needs to do to increase his chances of a big money fight against Canelo or Cotto is to fight Jacobs and beat him. Of course, if Saunders doesn’t feel like he’s up to the job, then I could completely understand him avoiding Jacobs like the plague and looking instead to milk his WBO title for all it’s worth.

Saunders was previously scheduled to fight #6 WBO Max Bursak on April 30, but the fight was canceled after Saunders suffered a hand injury to his left hand last April during training. Ever since that injury, Saunders has been inactive. It’s unclear when he will get back inside the ring. If he does elect to fight someone, we’re probably not going to see him back inside the ring until October or November. That’s a long time for Saunders to be out of the ring since his last fight in December. With that amount of time off, I wouldn’t expect Saunders to fight a live body, because it would be too risky.

Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler wanted a fight against Saunders, but it failed to happen. I don’t know if the fight can ever get made, because it would likely require that Golovkin give Saunders a big split of the revenue for the fight. The problem with that is there wouldn’t likely be a lot of money for them to split, because Goovkin-Saunders is not a saleable fight in the U.S. It’s not as if Golovkin can fight Saunders on HBO PPV and bring in a ton of buys.

It’s not a PPV fight due to Saunders being an unknown to the casual boxing fans in the U.S. Honestly, I think Golovkin needs to forget about unifying the middleweight division, and instead concentrate on what’s important by fighting the most popular guys that the American public cares about. If Golovkin gets bogged down with his career trying to beat paper champions, then he’s going to limit how popular he can become.

If you look at Canelo Alvarez, he doesn’t waste time fighting a lot of no names. He fights the best know guys that his promoters think he can beat. Obviously, Golden Boy seems to be aiming low for what Canelo is capable of doing by putting him in with WBO 154lb champion Liam Smith for his next fight on September 17 instead of matching him against one of the Charlo brothers or Erislandy Lara.

As far as Jacobs getting a fight against Saunders, I think he can forget all about that fight happening. I do not see Saunders fighting Jacobs in 2016, 2017, 2018, or anytime in this lifetime. I don’t see it. I think Jacobs is just too good for Saunders, and that’s why I doubt that fight will happen during their careers.