By Jeff Aranow: Daniel Jacobs will be enjoying a 2 ½” height and 3” reach advantage over Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on March 18. Jacobs’ trainer Andre Rozier says the size advantage for his fighter is going to give Golovkin all kinds of problems when they get inside the ring at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Rozier says the 6’1” Jacobs is going to use movement and his reach to get the better of the 5’10 ½” Triple G.
Jacobs had a two inch height and three inch reach advantage in his fight against the 5’11” Dmitri Pirog in 2010, but he still wound up getting knocked out in the 5th round by him. Pirog was able to easily work his way in punching range to nail Jacobs with a big right hand that knocked him out.
Jacobs tried to keep Pirog off of him with his jab, but it didn’t work. Pirog easily maneuvered past Jacobs’ jabs and power shots to land effective punches for the entire fight. Jacobs might as well have had no size advantage, because he wasn’t able to control the fight in any round. Pirog was skilled enough to negate Jacobs’ size.
Rozier said this to KO Artist bout his thoughts on the Jacobs-Golovkin fight:
“He believes in his ability, and he can rise to the challenge and be victorious,” said Jacobs’ trainer Rozier about the Golovkin fight.
Rozier says that Jacobs will use his footwork to control the Golovkin fight. Jacobs can move well around the ring. The question is can he move well enough to prevent Golovkin from cornering him. Willie Monroe Jr. tried initially to use movement against Golovkin, but he was hit with a lot of hard body shots that prevented him from doing a lot of movement. The only fighter that was recently able to move a lot against Golovkin was Kell Brook in their fight last September. Brook moved for five rounds. Brook stopped moving in the 5th round after getting hit with a body shot. I think the shot took the wind out of Brook, because he no longer moved and he stopped covering up his head. Brook lowered his guard and kept it by his waist while Golovkin unloaded on him.
Speaking about Jacobs’ side advantage over Golovkin, Rozier said, “On fight night, it’ll be even more apparent. He can use his reach and his footwork to create real havoc in the ring that night. It’s still a boxing match, and you’re going to see the best out of both of them. I know what he has to deal with in this fight. I know what he has to deal with, and he will deal with it,” said Rozier in referring to Jacobs’ plans for the Golovkin fight.
Jacobs is at his best when he’s at medium distance to his opponents. He’s not someone without super long arms, and he’s not capable of firing power shots from long range. Jacobs doesn’t have the best jab either. He’s not the type of guy that can control a fight from the outside against good opposition. Jacobs is going to need to fight Golovkin at his distance for him to have a chance of winning. Jacobs will not be able to keep Golovkin off of him.
The only way to win is to turn the fight into a Kassim Ouma vs. Golovkin type of fight in which Jacobs stands and trades with him in a war. Ouma was able to fight Golovkin in a toe-to-toe battle for 10 rounds before the fight was stopped. Ouma did a pretty good job, but that was before Golovkin was a body puncher. Golovkin was mostly a head hunter back then, and he landed a lot of head shots in the fight. Ouma’s face was badly swollen at the end of the fight. It would be surprising if Jacobs can fight that kind of war with Golovkin that Ouma did. Ouma was a pretty tough fighter.
Rozier needs a better plan than having Jacobs just moving and trying to use his reach. I don’t think that’s going to work on Golovkin. Jacobs is not that good of a mover. He moves, but he’s not elusive enough to keep good fighters like Golovkin from trapping him. Pirog had no problems at all in cutting off the ring on Jacobs to force him to exchange.
In the final sequence of their fight in 2010, Jacobs tried to move laterally and Pirog easily intercepted him and knocked him out with a right hand. Jacobs would have been better off if he stood his ground and fought Pirog, because he was trying to move while Pirog was throwing a right hand.
Jacobs needs several plans that he can rifle through quickly against Golovkin on March 18. If the plans start to fail, he can’t stick with them for too long because it’s too risky for him to get stuck with one plan for too long. Jacobs is at his best when he’s the one coming forward letting his hands go. That’s been his specialty during his career.
When Jacobs veered away from that against Pirog, he was knocked out. I don’t think he needs to duplicate his results from that fight by trying to move a lot against Golovkin. The only thing that Jacobs will succeed at by using movement is to take the power off his shots, and make him defenseless when Golovkin hits him while coming forward.