By Jim Dower: Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) understands that he’s facing a fighter with good punching power in IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) in a little more than 2 weeks from now on March 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York. However, Jacobs says that he believes that he has the better punching power than the Kazakhstan fighter.
Jacobs says that his power is shaper and more athletic than the 34-year-old Golovkin’s power. Jacobs says that his power is hard to see, which is alludes to him having the better hand speed of the two.
Jacobs caught Peter Quillin with a fast right hand that he didn’t see coming in their fight in 2015. The shot badly hurt Quillin and led to Jacobs knocking him out with a storm of punches. If Jacobs can land a similar shot against Golovkin on March 18, then it’s possible he could knock him out quickly as well.
“Just because he has A+ or A- power and I have B+ or B- power doesn’t mean both guys can’t go down or both guys can’t get hurt,” said Jacobs. “This is boxing and it’s all about putting your punches together perfectly. I have a different type of power. I have athletic power that people can’t see. If you ask whose is better. I like mind better. On Mach 18, we’re going to shock the world,” said Jacobs.
Both fighters have good punching power. Golovkin only occasionally loads up on his shots with everything. We saw him hit Kell Brook hard twice in their fight last September with what looked like maximum power. The first hard shot from Golovkin broke Brook’s right eye socket. The second really hard punch from Golovkin came in the 3rd round when he hit Brook with a right hand to the head. Brook took the shot well, but he was in distress from the moment on. He stopped fighting and started moving nonstop. Golovkin will need to load up more on his punches against Jacobs to be able to knock him out.
“It’s a big opportunity for me and I’m looking forward to it,” said Jacobs. “No, I don’t see that that is the only route,” said Jacobs about whether he needs to knock Golovkin out to get the victory. If adjustments need to be made it could go the distance. I’m not saying that my plan is to go in there and knock somebody out.”
Jacobs is capable of out-boxing Golovkin is need be. It’s more likely that not that Jacobs’ Plan-A will be for him to use his jab to try and win a decision rather than to mix it up with GGG. Plan-B could be for Jacobs to look to unload with power shots if things aren’t working out with him trying to move and jab.