By Allan Fox: One of the major things that worries Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez about Daniel Jacobs is his ability to box and move around the ring for their fight on March 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York. That’s an area of concern for Sanchez, as most of the guys that GGG has fought during his decade long career have been fighters with slow feet that he’s been able to force into fighting.
If Jacobs chooses to move for 12 rounds, it could be difficult for Golovkin to land his power shots. Jacobs is very likely going to use a game plan that involves limiting Golovkin’s punch output. The way for Jacobs to do this is to move, jab and hold. Those are tried and true methods that fighters often use when fighting huge punchers like Golovkin.
It’s not a coincidence that Jacobs moved his training camp to Virgil Hunter’s gym in Hayward, California to get ready for the Triple G fight. Hunter is the trainer for light heavyweight champion Andre Ward. We saw how Ward was able to beat a fighter with better punching power and offensive skills than himself in Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev last November by using constant holding and wrestling.
Ward nullified Kovalev’s offense by holding and wrestling him. The referee didn’t step in to take points off from Ward and disqualify him for his constant holding, but few referees control holding nowadays. Constant holding has become a part of boxing, and the referees tend to let it go on without addressing the issue. One of Jacob’s game plans for the Golovkin fight could be nonstop holding to keep him from throwing his punches.
It would look ugly, but it might be a strategy that could work for Jacobs if Golovkin isn’t ready for 12 rounds of grappling. When you get a fighter that has prepared for a wrestling fight during training camp, it makes it very hard for their opponent if they haven’t been training in how to deal with that kind of non-boxing style.
“We are concerned with his punching power and his ability to move and his ability to box. I don’t think that should be an issue for him,” said Sanchez.
The movement is going to be there for Jacobs as well. I just don’t think he’s going to use a lot of movement, because it will tire him out and he’s likely going to be in the 170s for the fight. Jacobs weighed in at 174 pounds for the 30-day weigh-in. That’s heavy. When you’re that big, you’re not going to be able to move for 12 rounds without fading.
Jacobs will likely use the movement sparingly during the fight so that he does gas out. He doesn’t want to overdo by moving too frequently. The last thing that Jacobs needs is to ruin his chance of winning by getting tired from circling the ring for 12 rounds. The fight is taking place in New York. The boxing fans are going to want to see action, not running. If Jacobs moves too much during the fight, he’ll be booed out of the ring the way that Keith Thurman was booed last Saturday night for all the moving he was doing against Danny Garcia.
“He is one of the most dangerous for me. He is very good in the ring. He is a good boxer with good technique,” said Golovkin about Jacobs.
Jacobs’ power will only be there if he decides to stand and fight Golovkin rather than moving and holding. I don’t think Jacobs is going to try and fight Golovkin though. Just by choosing to train at Virgil Hunter’s gym in Hayward, California, Jacobs has dropped a really big hint what he’s going to be doing against Golovkin on March 18. You don’t go all the across the United States from New York to Hayward unless you’re going to try and use the tactics that Hunter is capable of teaching.
If Jacobs is able to hold and wrestle like Ward did against Kovalev, it could be a very tough fight for Golovkin. He would have to be able to throw short punches on the inside while being held. Also, the holding and wrestling that Jacobs potentially uses could drain the power out of Golovkin, leaving him too weak to throw his sledgehammer blows like he usually does.
Wrestling is hard enough to do for 3 minutes in one round. But if you’re forced to wrestle for 12 rounds, it could be a much different type of fight than the ones that Golovkin has become accustomed to. If this strategy backfires on Jacobs with him getting knocked out anyway, he’ll take a lot of criticism from the boxing public for him choosing not to trust in his own punching power and ability by fighting Golovkin.
This is going to be a different Jacobs that we’ve seen in the past, I believe. Jacobs was almost knocked out by Sergio Mora in their first fight when he came out slugging. That fight showed clearly that Jacobs does not possess the chin to stand and beat Golovkin in a dog fight. He must turn the fight into a spoiling affair for him to have a chance at winning, and even then, it will require that Golovkin not know how to deal with nonstop wrestling.