By Eric Baldwin: Daniel Jacobs says that he will not fail in beating middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin on March 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jacobs says the creator wouldn’t have let him come this far only to see him fail. Golovkin is the favorite though in the fight.
For Jacobs to win, he’s going to need to fight the perfect fight and not get hit too much. With Golovkin’s 9-year knockout streak going for him, he’s proven that his punching power is a level above the other top fighters.
Jacobs has been hurt three times in his pro career by Dmitri Pirog, Ishe Smith and Sergio Mora. Golovkin tops all of them in the punching power department by a considerable margin.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” said Jacobs. “The creator didn’t get me this far to let me fail. This is a man that is coming in to try and do harm to you,” said Jacobs about Golovkin. “He doesn’t care about cancer or my story or my past or anything I bring to the table. He wants to harm me.”
Jacobs would do well to take matters into his own hands on March 18. He cannot let Golovkin land his big power shots the way he normally does. He’s too powerful, and he’ll wear Jacobs down with his punches. Golovkin has already said repeatedly that he plans on turning the Jacobs fight into a “real drama show” and that he wants to give the boxing fans a special “gift” in this fight. When Golovkin says stuff like this, it usually means he’s going to come out and brawl with his opponents. The only times that Golovkin didn’t slug it out with his opposition in the last several years is when he fought Curtis Stevens and David Lemieux. Golovkin boxed box of those fighters for most of the fights before putting them away with big power shots in round 8.
“When you have two MX missiles coming at each other, you know it’s going to be a big explosion,” said Jacobs’ trainer Andre Rozier.
Rozier has a game plan for Jacobs that could entail him using movement to keep out of the way of Golovkin. Rozier has talked about wanting Jacobs to stick and move to try and win a decision. Jacobs is capable of doing that. He’s shown in the past that he can box when he wants to.
Lately, Jacobs’ opposition has been bad and not skilled or talented enough to stand up to his big power shots. Jacobs hasn’t needed to show his boxing ability. It’s going to be a different story against Golovkin. Jacobs would be making a mistake if he runs across the ring and tries to nail Golovkin with a hard right hand at the start of the fight the way he did Peter Quillin in their fight in 2015.
“My ability speaks for itself,” said Jacobs. “That’s why I look forward to letting my hands speak for themselves.”
Hopefully, Jacobs is going to trade with Golovkin so that the fans can see a good fight. It’s nothing worse than watching a fighter hold or move for 12 rounds. That’s not interesting for the boxing fans to see and it could hurt Jacobs’ popularity. Kell Brook showed recently that you can lose a fight against Golovkin and still see your stock rise. What Brook did was to make sure he mixed it up with Golovkin a certain extent in every round.
Brook didn’t mix it up a lot, because he probably wouldn’t have lasted more than one or two rounds if he slugged the entire time. What Brook did was land occasional punches that got the crowd interested in the fight. It showed the fans that Brook was at least trying part of the time to make
“Yeah, he’s a little bit taller than me, bigger me and stronger than me,” said Golovkin about Jacobs. “This is boxing. Size is nothing.”
Golovkin has been sparring with super middleweights and light heavyweights in preparation for the Jacobs fight. If Jacobs is going to surprise Golovkin, he’ll have to surprise with something other than his size for the fight.
“You have to have a Plan-A. You have to have a Plan-B. You might have to have a Plan-C,” said Jacobs about his fight against Golovkin. “But ultimately, it takes the right mind frame to beat a guy like Triple G. You have to have the heart. You can’t fear him. One of the main reasons why a lot of guys haven’t been successful [against Golovkin] is because they were already beaten before they got inside the ring because of the fear of the man. I have no fears,” said Jacobs.
By Jacobs reducing Golovkin’s wins down to him winning because of his opponents’ were being scared of him, he’s not going him credit for having beaten these fighters. That’s a mistake. Jacobs didn’t study Golovkin’s past fights closely enough to realize that his opponents did try very hard to beat him in most cases, but they didn’t have the ability to take his big power shots.
Golovkin has been hurting his opponents with his power shots. He’s not been winning fights because his opponents have jumped out of the ring due to them being frightened. Golovkin is legitimately beating them with his punching power. Jacobs needs to understand that Golovkin is a cut above the guys that he’s faced before during his career. He’s not someone that is overrated. He’s got big time power that takes the fight out of his opponents.
“He does have the quicker hands, I believe,” said Roy Jones Jr. about Jacobs in comparison to Golovkin. “But does he hurt hard enough to hurt Triple G? That’s the question,” added Jones.
Jacobs has the speed and size advantage in this fight. We’ll see if Jacobs can use those advantages the get the victory against Golovkin on March 18. It’s possible Jacobs can win this fight because he’s a better fighter with better tools than the guys that Golovkin has faced at the pro level. Jacobs isn’t that much faster than Golovkin though. He doesn’t have Jones Jr. or Floyd Mayweather Jr. like hand speed. Jacobs might be a little faster than Kell Brook, who Golovkin chopped down in 5 rounds last September.
“I have power. I have class. I want to show the fans my style, my work,” said Golovkin.
Golovkin is hoping to increase his popularity with his performance against Jacobs. This might be bad news for Jacobs if Golovkin comes out quickly and forced him into a brawl in the 1st round. The only fighter that has jumped on Jacobs immediately in his career was Dmitri Pirog in their fight in 2010. Pirog ended up knocking Jacobs out in the 5th round.
“Kell Brook is not a natural middleweight,” said HBO Boxing analyst Max Kellerman. If Danny Jacobs can do his best Kell Brook. If he can at least have the quality, and you puff that up to a natural middleweight, it could get really interesting,” said Kellerman.
Jacobs is a different type of fighter than Brook. I don’t know if he can fight in the same style as Brook for any length of time. You have to remember that Brook was taking hard shots despite all the movement he was using. Brook only came forward to try and punch with Golovkin 2-3 times per round. The rest of the time Brook was on the move trying not to get hit. The judges that scored rounds in Brook’s favor in the Golovkin fight were giving him rounds off of very little activity.
Golovkin was landing more shots in every round, including the 2nd. That was considered by many boxing fans to be the best round of the fight by Brook. Jacobs can’t fight like Brook and expect to win the fight, because it’s going to be a different venue and a different crowd. Brook was fighting in front of a fan friendly crowd in his fight against Golovkin. Jacobs won’t have it the same way. It’ll be a crowd that is split down the middle.
“I’m going to face some challenges,” said Jacobs. “Yes, maybe. Is it going to be the toughest? Yes, maybe. I’ve been hurt before. I’ve been down before. I’m not afraid of that. This is what happens in the sport of boxing. You get hurt, but it’s up to you to get up and fight back,” said Golovkin.
It’s going to be a really big challenge for Jacobs in facing GGG at Madison Square Garden in New York. The only way this fight doesn’t turn out to be a big challenge for Jacobs is if he can blast Golovkin out in the 1st round like he did with Peter Quillin.
“I know my business. This is my life,” said Golovkin. This is first class. This is championship class.”
This fight is going to show the boxing world whether Golovkin is for real or not. There are a lot of people who see him as just hype right now. If Golovkin can destroy Jacobs, then the fans will have to take him seriously.
“I think this is Golokin’s breakout year,” said HBO Boxing analyst Roy Jones Jr. “At any moment either guy can end the fight.”
Golovkin could become a big PPV star for HBO if he can beat Jacobs and Saul Canelo Alvarez by knockout. If Golovkin adds both of their scalps to his growing his collection, it could take his career to the next level.
“The guy that lands the first significant shot, the tide will turn in his favor,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez.
Sanchez has been saying repeatedly that the fighter that lands the first big shot will be the winner, but I don’t think it’s going to be the case. If Golovkin hits Jacobs hard, it’s not going to end the fight unless he catches him going backwards the way that Dmitri Pirog did in knocking Jacobs down in their fight in 2010.
“We won’t see the 12th round in this fight,” said Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler.
There is a very good chance that the Golovkin-Jacobs fight won’t go 12 rounds, but it depends. If Jacobs has a strategy to try and nullify Golovkin’s offense by using constant movement, jabbing and holding, the fight could go the distance. Golovkin can knockout most guys even when they’re spoiling and not really trying to win, but he might not be able to KO Jacobs if he uses that same tactic. Jacobs is a big fighter, and he’s got the size to slow the fight down to a crawl if he wants to do.
Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions says there is no deal in place for his fighter Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) to face WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) in a fight in June. Loeffler says Golovkin’s entire focus is on his upcoming fight against Jacobs.
There have been a lot of rumors about Golovkin facing the 27-year-old Saunders in a unification fight in early June. It’s the last 160 lb. title not in Saunders’ possession, and Golovkin has been transparently clear about him wanting that title.
“GGG promoter Tom Loeffle1 on deal for Saunders in June if GGG beats Jacobs: ‘There’s no deal in place. Everyone is focused on Jacobs,’” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter. “GGG trainer Abel Sanchez said GGG has been sparring with David Benavidez & Julius Jackson. #GGG-Jacobs #boxing.”
Golovkin can’t afford to look past Jacobs because he could very well lose this fight if he’s not totally focused. Golovkin could lose the fight anyway even if he is dialed in for the fight. Jacobs has the power, speed and size to beat Golovkin. In the past when Golovkin fought big punchers in David Lemieux and Curtis Stevens, he either had a height or a reach advantage over them. On March 18, Golovkin will be the smaller fighter all around in terms of height, reach and weight. Golovkin will also be the slower fighter. Golovkin might have the power advantage, but that remains to be seen. Jacobs hits pretty hard