By Eric Baldwin: The great Julio Cesar Chavez believes that Daniel Jacobs has the talent and overall ability to pull off an upset on Saturday night in his fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin at Madison Square Garden in New York. Chavez likes Jacobs’s talent, and he feels he’ll be well prepared for this fight on Saturday night. Chavez also likes the ability of Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), and he feels he’s got power, boxing skills and lots of knockouts that show how good he is. Chavez rates Golovkin as the favorite in the fight, but he’s not ruling out an upset victory for Jacobs.
Golovkin is on the brink of getting a big fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez in September. It would be a big career setback if Golovkin were to lose this fight. Canelo was beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 without the loss hurting his career, but it would be a different story if Golovkin lost. He lacks the built in fan base that Canelo has going for him. Golovkin also doesn’t have the youth that would enable him to rebound from a loss in 3-4 years. In that time, Golovkin was be 37 or 38, and likely not the fighter he is today.
“In the ring anything is possible,” said Chavez to espn.com. “Gennady Golovkin is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world due to the punching power in both hands and the fact that he’s blown out his last 23 opponents with brutal knockouts. He has such good footwork. He’s so good technically. Gennady Golovkin should be the favorite. But that doesn’t discount the abilities of Daniel Jacobs and his preparation. He could make it a hard fight for Gennady Golovkin. Anything is possible inside the ring. Gennady Golovkin is a beast, but he’s beatable. Ali lost. Tyson lost. I lost. So anything is possible inside the ring, and Danny Jacobs has the faculties to pull this off,” said Chavez.
This is a 50-50 fight between Jacobs and Golovkin on Saturday. You can’t pick one fighter over another because neither has enough advantages to pick them as a rock solid favorite in the fight. You cannot select Golovkin as the winner, because he’s not fought anyone as talented or as big as Jacobs. Golovkin also is coming off of one of his worst performances of his career in his fight with Kell Brook.
Golovkin looked very beatable in that fight despite winning. Golovkin won the fight by a 5th round knockout, but took punishment from Brook and he might have had a problem on his hands if Brook hasn’t suffered an eye injury.