By Eric Baldwin: Adam Booth, the trainer for WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, says that he feels that Gennady Golovkin did enough to earn his 12 round decision victory over Daniel Jacobs last Saturday night. While Booth did see the fight as a close affair, he felt that Golovkin’s jabs and the knockdown in round 4 that he scored were the difference in the fight. He says that Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) won more rounds overall than Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs).
(Photo Courtesy HBO/Ed Mulholland)
Booth said that Jacobs fought well in the rounds that he won, and looked flashy, but he didn’t win enough of them. There’s some controversy with boxing fans about the decision, but Booth believes that the right guy had his hand raised at the end of the fight.
Booth may need to come up with a game plan for the 27-year-old Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) to beat Golovkin, because the two of them could be facing each other in June in Kazakhstan. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler is reportedly in negotiations with Saunder’s promoter to put the fight together.
“I think it’s safe to say that Golovkin won by a couple of points,” said Booth to IFL TV. “I think the knockdown and the amount of heavy jabs that Danny allowed Golovkin to land made the difference in the fight for me. Danny landed the more flashy combinations and more punches in the rounds that he won. Of course, win you win a round, it’s not a knockdown. It’s a 10-9 round. The rounds that Danny won, he won with a lot more punches than the rounds Golovkin won. But Golovkin won more rounds and he had that knockdown and that played a part in the fight. If there’s a rematch, it’ll be interesting because Danny knows what the power feels like. He had a lot of success,” said Booth.
It will be interesting to see Golovkin and Jacobs face each other a second time, especially if the final pay-per-view totals for their fight last Saturday night on HBO ends up being in the 200,000 range. Loeffler is saying that the numbers are above 153,000. Jacobs can help sell the Golovkin rematch if he stays active and beats someone good in his next fight. It’s no good if Jacobs goes back to fighting guys like Sergio Mora, Caleb Truax and Jarrod Fletcher. Jacobs needs to raise the level of his opposition because he’s floated through the last 7 years of his career with only 2 quality opponents in Peter Quillin and Golovkin. The rest of the guys Jacobs have fought have mediocre fighters with limited talent. Jacobs could wind up wasting his career if he goes back to fighting the guys that he’s been facing for the last 7 years.
“Finally our Pay-Per-View numbers are projected to well exceed those of Gennady’s first pay-pay-event, which were just over 153,000, with exact numbers still being calculated,” said Loeffler.
“At age 34, you don’t know if Golovkin can rise in tempo when he’s fighting because he’s had the majority of his career his own way because he’s so heavy handed,” said Booth. “It was almost like he was insulted by the punches by the punches that Danny was throwing back. Danny boxed a very smart, slick fight with some good quick combinations. It became more than insulting later in the fight when it looked a couple of times like the weight of shots concerned Golovkin. I wouldn’t say hurt him. They concerned him. It became a very, very exciting fight. There’s not many fighters in the world that can fight like Danny Jacobs, but Triple G still won. He’s still very strong, and very heavy handed. We’re looking for cracks in his beast armor, but let’s not get carried away. It was probably his first competitive fight in his pro career. Maybe that has woke something up in him. Maybe next time he’ll be better because he’s had some competition. Having had a competitive fight, it’s easy to see Triple G raising his game and go up a level. I also know how deceptive, clever and quick Billy Joe is. If the fights get made,” said Booth.