By Dan Ambrose: Virgil Hunter, the trainer for IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Andre Ward, is going to be helping out with the training for WBA World middleweight champion Danny Jacobs get ready for his fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) on March 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Jacob (32-1, 29 KOs) will be training at Hunter’s King Boxing gym in Oakland, California. Jacobs’ normal trainer Andre Rozier will be the lead trainer, and Hunter will be there for advice, according to RingTV.com.
It’s unknown if Ward will show up and give some advice as well for Jacobs. Ward, 32, has shown interest in fighting GGG in the past, but the two fighters never met up for one reason or another. It would have been a great fight. It’s still not too late, as long are both in the game.
Some boxing fans would argue that if Hunter is going to help with Jacob’ training, we could see a lot of holding and smothering from Jacobs on March 18th, as he attempts to shut Golovkin down by limiting his punch output. This is what Ward did in his controversial 12 round unanimous decision win over IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in their fight on November 19.
Ward frequently tied Kovalev up in close, and would land one or two body shots while in the process of grappling with him. The wrestling eventually tired Kovalev out in the 2nd half of the fight. Ward still barely won the fight despite winning almost every round in the second half of the match on all three of the judge’s scorecards. Jacobs isn’t much of a wrestler, and he might not benefit from a change of fighting style at this point in his career.
Golovkin appears to be the better fighter on the inside. Jacobs is the better fighter on the outside with his speed and range. Hunter might hurt Jacobs’ natural style if he has him use the mauling style of fighting that Ward employed against Kovalev.
Rozier said this to RingTV.com about Jacobs training at Hunter’s gym:
“Virgil has given us the opportunity to work out of his gym,” Rozier said. “And Virgil and I are like family. So I know every once in a while he’ll whisper something in my ear. There’s going to be a bunch of fighters there — Andre Ward is there, (Andre) Berto is there. We’re not going to Madison Square Garden and coming up short. We’re winning this fight.”
Jacobs needs to not overthink this training camp by trying to do too much. If he changes too much of his boxing style and works too hard in camp, he might defeat his own efforts to win. It’s doubtful that Golovkin is going to do anything different. His trainer Abel Sanchez says he’s treating this fight just like all of his usual ones. He’s not going to go overboard with the things he does in camp trying to get ready for a fighter, who many not be any better than some of Golovkin’s past opponents. We already know that Jacobs has a chin problem. Jacobs can punch, but so could some of Golovkin’s past opponents like David Lemieux and Curtis Stevenson. Those guys are arguably even bigger punchers than Jacobs, and neither of them did well at all against him.
What we saw from Ward in his last fight against Kovalev was him landing labs from the outside, and then tying up Kovalev in close to wrestle and throw short body shots. Ward has a good jab, and he was able to land it frequently while he was on the outside. Jacobs doesn’t have as good as jab as Golovkin, and it’s not realistic to think he’s going to acquire one in this training camp.
If Jacobs tries to beat Golovkin by getting into a jabbing contest, then he’ll likely lose the fight by a one-sided decision or by a knockout once GGG gets to him. Jacobs is better off sticking with the fighting style that got him to this point rather than tinkering with his success for this fight. What have always made Jacobs good was his right hand power shots. Jacobs is good at nailing his opponents with hard right hands, and then taking them out after he hurts them. Golovkin has top rate boxing skills, and he’s not going to be beaten with a jab or by the holding that Jacobs might try.
Training in Oakland instead of New York would seem like a strange move for Jacobs. Maybe Hunter’s gym in Oakland is better suited to him. Jacobs has three Eastern European sparring partners that he’s using to help him prepare for Golovkin’s style. Presumably, some or all of those three will travel to Oakland to be there to spar with Jacobs to get him ready for Triple G.
One advantage of having Jacobs’ training camp in Oakland compared to New York is the mild weather. It’s a lot warmer in Oakland compared to New York this time a year. There’s less of a chance of Jacobs coming down with a bad cold of some sorts while training in the frigid Easter Coast weather, even though he’s obviously used to that climate.
Jacobs is a good fighter without needing to tinker with his training regimen too much. He should just use what he had for his training camp against Peter Quillin in 2015. That camp produced a 1st round knockout win for Jacobs. If he’s not good enough to beat Golovkin with what he did in that camp, then he’ll never be good enough to beat him no matter how many people he has helping him. The only fighter that Hunter seems to have done really well with is Ward, and he’s got a style that might not work against a fighter like Golovkin.