By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Abel Sanchez believes that Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) is making a mistake being so heavy for his upcoming fight this month against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) on March 18. Jacobs weighed in at 174 pounds for the World Boxing Council mandated 30-day weigh-in, and was 9 lbs. heavier than GGG, who weighed in at 165 lbs. With that much weight, Jacobs appears to be looking to beat Golovkin on size rather than speed.
Sanchez sees that as a blunder on Jacobs and his trainer’s part, because he doesn’t see him being any faster with the added weight. In fact, Sanchez believes that Jacobs will be slower for having to carry around all the weight.
Golovkin has been sparring the big punching undefeated super middleweight contender David Benavidez (17-0, 16 KOs) in getting ready for the Jacobs fight. Benavidez is a huge puncher with major power in both hands. Sanchez thinks that Benavidez has done a good job of getting Golovkin ready for the heavy shots from Jacobs. Benavidez is likely a bigger puncher than Jacobs. Everything that Benavidez throws has tons of power. He’s a ready dangerous puncher.
“I’m excited because we finally have a challenge for Gennady to show off his skills, his action skills, instead of a bar fight,” said Sanchez to Fighthub.com. “He’s right at his prime. Usually these fights keeps a fighter mentally young. But if he doesn’t fight, it creates the opposite effect. I expect Andre [Rozier] to understand that he can’t be real effective [if he puts on too much weight for the GGG fight] because he’ll be slower. The power is not going to be increased by being 15-20 pounds heavier. He needs to be sharp, he needs to be mobile, alert inside the ring, and if he’s too heavy, that’s not going to help. I’m very aware of his power. He’s got 13 knockouts in a row,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez thinks that Jacobs should be coming into the fight light, so he can move around and be agile. The fact that Jacobs is so heavy this close to the fight suggests that the plan is for the 29-year-old Jacobs to try and beat Golovkin on size rather than speed. Golovkin is a small middleweight, who could easily be fighting in the junior middleweight division if he wanted to.
Golovkin might actually be better off if he did move down to 154, because he would be in proximity to get the better fights. Golovkin could fight the top fighters at junior middleweight like Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Jarrett Hurd, Julian ”J-Rock” Williams and Erislandy Lara. But even better than that, Golovkin would be right next to the welterweight division, so he could face fighters from that division on occasion as well in the same way that Saul Canelo Alvarez has been doing for many years. At middleweight, Golovkin doesn’t have many options for big fights, because the 160lb and 168lb divisions are devoid of big name fighters.
“I think Daniel puts the fear, the anticipation of the unknown,” said Sanchez to secondsout.com about Jacobs motivating Golovkin. “Having punching power and being crafty as he is, it’s going to be a great fight. I put David [Benavidez] in there first because Daniel’s people may think to rush Gennady is the best option. David, being the kind of fighter he is, he’s got fast hands, he’s got great power, great movement, difficult to hurt. The first four rounds with David really sets the pace for the rest of the sparring, and they’re really going to set the pace in the fight too.”
It would be interesting to see the sparring sessions between Golovkin and Benavidez. Those must have been real tough battles. Sanchez says that Benavidez will be working with Canelo Alvarez as a sparring partner to get him ready for his May 6 fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. This will give Benavidez a good chance to compare Canelo to Golovkin. He can test out Canelo’s power and speed and see how it differs from Golovkin.
“No, I don’t think his [Jacobs] chin is suspect. Are we looking for a quick knockout? No. But we’re looking for the Golovkin that fought [Curtis] Stevens.”
Jacobs was knocked out in 5 rounds by Dmitri Pirog in 2010. Jacobs has fought one really good fighter in the years since that loss in Peter Quillin, who he stopped in the 1st round in 2015. Quillin was caught cold by Jacobs with a big right hand in round 1. Quillin never stood a chance after he was hurt by a hard right hand to the head. Jacobs then flurried on Quillin to get a quick stoppage. Sanchez isn’t going to let Golovkin be surprised in the same way that Quillin was by him.
If Jacobs tries to jump on Golovkin in round 1, he could be in for a big shock. Jacobs might be making another mistake if he does that. The weight that Jacobs is carrying around is going to make it tough on him to move as fast as he needs to for him to escape the pressure that Golovkin is putting on him. If Jacobs thinks he’s going to squash Golovkin, he might be making a mistake. Golovkin punches out of his weight class with his huge power. For that reason, it’s unclear what Jacobs’ trainer is thinking in having him come in so heavy. He should be as light as possible in case he has to use movement to avoid Golovkin.