By Allan Fox: Daniel Jacobs says he does not fear unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, and he knows that he can beat him on March 18. Jacobs, 29, says he’s trained his whole life for this, and he’s not going to quit now. Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) doesn’t care that Golovkin is viewed as the most feared man in boxing. He still believes he’s going to defeat him.
Golovkin and Jacobs will be fighting on HBO pay-per-view on March 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York. It’s a fight that many fans are looking to, and it’s viewed as a much more competitive fight on paper than the May 6 mega-fight between Mexican stars Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. That’s a fight between a relevant fighter in Canelo and a fighter from the past in Chavez Jr., who is no longer fighting the best after losing to Sergio Martinez in 2012.
“They say he’s the most feared man in boxing,” said Jacobs about Golovkin. “I don’t fear him. I didn’t come this far to quit. Are you ready for this? Did you train your whole life for this? I say hell yeah,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs is the younger fighter by 5 years than the 34-year-old Golovkin. Jacobs has the size, youth and hand speed advantage over the Kazakhstan fighter Golovkin. However, for Jacobs to be able to take advantage of his physical advantages, he’s going to need to be able to make it into the second half of the fight. That’s the real problem.
Not many fighters make it to the later rounds against Triple G. When you look at Golovkin’s resume, it’s clear that very few of his opponents make it into the second half of his fights. When they do make it past 6 rounds, it’s often because he’s choosing to focus on boxing them rather than trying to knock them out. When Golovkin is trying to KO them, he generally gets them out of there rather quickly. Jacobs will need to fight smart to survive against Golovkin if he decides to turn the fight into a big “drama show” like he’s promising to.
“I like old school. I want sometimes crazy fight, because if you look every time great, no one wants to fight with you,” said Golovkin.
Golovkin says that he purposefully turned his last fight against welterweight Kell Brook into a “street fight” last September at the O2 Arena in London, England. Golovkin was hit a lot by Brook in the first 4 rounds of the fight. It appeared that Golovkin had zero respect for Brook’s power, because he was walking through his shots and not hesitating one bit in going after the British fighter.
Jacobs received blow by blow details about the Golovkin-Brook fight, and he feels a new surge of confidence at hearing how competitive the fight was. Jacobs believes that Golovkin was “exposed” by Brook.
Golovkin says he wasn’t trying to keep from getting hit by Brook. He wanted to turn the fight into a street fight. Jacobs might be making a mistake by assuming that Brook exposed Golovkin. It did appear that Golovkin wasn’t really trying not to get hit. He seemed to be more focused at knocking Brook out as fast as possible rather than avoiding his return shots.
“A friend of mine called me, giving me round by round scoop and I was on the phone with him,” said Jacobs about the Golovkin vs. Kell Brook fight. “He said, ‘Kell Brook just hit him with this shot. He hit him with a combination,’ he said. ‘He’s exposing him,’ [said] my best friend Darrell. From that point on, I knew for sure if I can land those same shots, it’s going to be a different story. In my opinion when things go well in camp, 9 times out of 10, it’s going to go right in the fight. Whatever he brings to the table, I know I’m going to overcome,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs shouldn’t get too carried away with thinking that he’ll win the fight against Golovkin based on what happened in the Brook fight. That fight was the exact opposite in how Golovkin fought David Lemieux and Curtis Stevenson, both of which were big punchers. Golovkin seems to have a different style that he uses against non-punchers than he does against punchers.
We saw how Golovkin allowed Willie Monroe Jr. and Dominic Wade both hit him while he was in the process of knocking them out quickly. Golovkin fought them both in the same manner that he did with Brook. They didn’t have the boxing skills or the chin to hit Golovkin as much as Brook did. Brook paid the price for the shots that he landed, as he suffered a broken right eye socket in the fight. His career might have been put in danger if his trainer Dominic Ingle hadn’t thrown in the towel in the 5th round.
“This is boxing. He’s not scared,” said Golovkin about Jacobs. “He knows his job. He knows this is possible for him,” said Golovkin.
Golovkin seems to be building Jacobs up more than trash talking him. Golovkin seems to like Jacobs. That could mean that he doesn’t try and knock him out immediately on March 18. We could see Jacobs landing some shots. If Golovkin feels that Jacobs is a treat to him, he’ll fight with caution and not try and crush him quickly.
“I understand the task at hand,” said Jacobs. “In order to be No.1, you’ve got to beat No.1. I know I can do it,” said Jacobs.
If Jacobs can beat Golovkin, he’ll be viewed as No.1 at 160. He’ll still need to beat Golovkin in a rematch and defeat Saul Canelo Alvarez to be viewed as the rock solid No.1. Jacobs will be more of an interim No.1 until he does those things. It’s going to be very hard for Jacobs to beat Golovkin though. Jacobs’ chin is not as solid as it needs to be. He talks about Golovkin being exposed by Brook, but the reality is, Jacobs was exposed by Dmitri Pirog and Sergio Mora.
There’s no escaping the fact that Jacobs has a chin problem that is going to make it difficult for him to beat Golovkin unless he can score a fast 1st round knockout like he did with Peter Quillin. If Jacobs has to take a lot of heavy shots from Golovkin in this fight, it’s doubtful he’ll win. Jacobs will have problems taking those shots without getting knocked out.
“This is the biggest chance for us, the biggest fight or us. Who’s better?” said Golovkin.
Jacobs training at Virgil Hunter’s gym in Hayward, California could mean that he’s received instructions on how to foil Golovkin from the trainer and Andre Ward, who also trains out of the gym. Ward likes to use holding and wrestling in his fights. It’s quite possible that Jacobs’ Plan-A will be for him to wrestle Golovkin for 12 rounds to keep him from throwing punches.
Whether grappling will work for Jacobs is the big question. The referee will need to let Jacobs use grappling for it to have a chance of being effective. It’ll also require Golovkin to not know how to deal with the wrestling. I think Golovkin does know how to handle that tactic. That’s why it’ll be sad if Jacobs resorts to that level to try and win rather than having self-belief in his own boxing skills and power that he can win the fight without bending the rules.