By Dan Ambrose: By electing not to be weighed for the IBFs mandated weight check this morning, Danny Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) has tipped his hands in his game plan for tonight’s fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) on HBO pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jacobs said last Friday, “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win. I’ve been dreaming of this since I put in the gloves at 15.”
Some boxing fans are calling Jacobs a cheater today for him choosing not to weigh-in like Golovkin did for the IBF’s weight check. They point out that Golovkin went through the trouble to make sure his weight was within the 10 lb. limit for the IBF weight check, so Jacobs should do the same thing. The fact that Jacobs chose not to be weighed in gives the fans the impression that he’s trying to use his weight as an advantage to try and beat Golovkin. That’s a sign of insecurity on Jacobs’ part. If he trusted in his own ability, he wouldn’t try and use weight to beat Golovkin. He would use his natural power and boxing skills.
Tonight’s Golovkin-Jacobs card on HBO PPV starts at 9pm ET/6pm PT.
It looks like Jacobs meant what he said that he would do anything necessary for him to beat GGG. It looks like Jacobs is going to use his size and weight advantage to defeat Triple G tonight. Jacobs chose not to be weighed in by the International Boxing Federation today, which means he won’t be able to fight for the IBF middleweight title. If Jacobs wins the fight, the IBF title will go vacant. In other words, Jacobs cannot win that title. Golovkin can lose it, but not to Jacobs.
The reason why Jacobs decided not to be weighed today at the IBF’s weight-check is obvious. Jacobs has to be over the IBF’s 10 pound limit. Golovkin barely made the limit himself in coming in at 169 lbs. You can only imagine how heavy Jacobs will be tonight. Some boxing fans believe that Jacobs will come into the fight at 190. That would be 31 lbs. of weight that Jacobs rehydrated from the 159.8lbs that he weighed in at during Friday’s weigh-in. Some fighters are able to rehydrate that much, although it’s got to be rare because of how hard it is on a fighter’s body to take off that much weight and put it back on 24 hours before the fight.
“Golovkin is defending his IBF title, however Jacobs cannot acquire the title with a victory because he did not participate in the required IBF same-day weigh-in,” said IBF chairman Lindsey Tucker.
We’re going to see tonight if Jacobs can beat Golovkin with his size advantage or not. If it fails to work for Jacobs, it will likely keep other fighters in the future from trying the same tactic. They might decide to be lighter and quicker to try and beat Golovkin. Kell Brook, Golovkin’s opponent last September, outweighed him for all 5 weight checks going into their fight, according to Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler. Brook’s weight advantage failed to bring him a victory over Golovkin. What was interesting was that many people in the boxing industry believed that Golovkin was the bigger fighter during the Brook fight. The fact of the matter is, Brook was the heavier fighter. It just didn’t seem that way because Golovkin had the power advantage and was pressing the fight to Jacobs.
“We definitely feel that Jacobs is his most dangerous test, because he’s bigger physically than Gennady,” said Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler to IFL TV. “He’s got great hand speed and great power,” said Loeffler about Jacobs. “I think we’ll see Gennady at the top of his game. Abel [Sanchez] has always said that when Gennady is truly tested, we’ll see Gennady’s skills come out, and that’s what we feel with Danny Jacobs.”
Jacobs is probably the heaviest fighter that Golovkin will have fought. We’ll need to see tonight. HBO Boxing normally reports the fight weights of different fighters on the night of their fights, but they don’t always list the weights. Saul Canelo Alvarez hasn’t had his fight night weight given by HBO for a while now. If Jacobs chooses not to have his weight revealed, then the boxing fans will need to go by how big he looks in comparison to Golovkin to estimate how heavy he is.
“Daniel Jacobs is the best challenge yet. I’ve never faced anyone that has all of his attributes,” said Golovkin.
We’ll see if Jacobs is the best challenge that Golovkin has ever faced or not tonight. Jacobs might not be the best that Golovkin has ever fought. Golovkin has fought David Lemieux and Curtis Stevens. Those guys would be really tough fights for Jacobs, because they hit so hard. Lemieux would especially be a tough fight for Jacobs if he couldn’t get him out of there quickly like he did Peter Quillin. Jacobs has a reputation for having excellent boxing skills, but he still gets hit a lot in his fights. Lemieux would get to Jacobs sooner or later to land one of his big bombs, and he might take him out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Golovkin stops Jacobs much earlier tonight than he did with Lemieux in defeating him by an 8 round TKO in 2015. Golovkin played it safe with Lemieux in choosing to box him for most of the fight. It was only in the 8th round that Golovkin really attacked Lemieux with power shots, and he took him out immediately after hurting him with a body shot.
“I hope it’s not going to be a banana skin for Golovkin,” said promoter Frank Warren to Boxnation.com. “I fancy Golovkin. Jacobs is not a bad puncher. The thing about Golovkin is he can box and he can punch, and I would think that he would come through this and win. The fight he had against Kell Brook, it looked like he had a few problems, but going into that fight there was a lot of talk that he wasn’t at his best, that he wasn’t 100 percent. He did what he had to do. I think he’s one of those fighters who will take a few shots to get you. If he boxes you, he’ll wear you down. If he thinks he can take your best, he’ll take that shot. He’ll take 2 or 3 to last his 1. He’s got a good chin there’s no doubt about it.”
If Golovkin beats Jacobs tonight, there’s a good chance that his next fight will be in June against Frank Warren’s fighter WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in a fight in Kazakhstan. That would give Golovkin the chance to win the final middleweight title not in his possession. Golden Boy Promotions wants Golovkin to not take a fight in June because it could jeopardize a fight between him and their No.1 star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September. However, Golovkin wants to fight 4 times in 2017, and he’s not going to stay out of the ring with the chance that he can fight Canelo in September. Golovkin has already had his hopes dashed in the past in trying to get a fight against Canelo. I don’t think he wants to put all his eggs in one basket assuming that he’ll get the fight with the red-headed star in September. If the fight fails to take place in September, then Golovkin would have nothing to show for him skipping the Saunders fight in June.
Pound-for-pound No.1 fighter and WBC super flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-0, 38 KOs) will be fighting in the co-feature fight tonight against the bigger and stronger challenger Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (41-4, 38 KOS). This is going to be a hard fight for Gonzalez. He might need to change his fighting tactics for this fight by using his boxing skills to win rather than trading power shots with the fighter from Thailand.
“Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and I will clash in the ring and it will be beautiful,” said Gonzalez.
Carlos “Principe” Cuadras (35-1-1, 27 KOs) will be fighting David Carmona (20-3-5, 8 KOs) on tonight’s Golovkin-Jacobs card. Cuadras, a former World Boxing Council super flyweight champion, is looking to put himself in a rematch with Roman Gonzalez with a win over Carmona. Cuadras lost to Gonzalez last September by a 12 round unanimous decision.
“I know David Carmona is a strong fighter that can take a lot of punches. I’m looking forward to a brawl,” said Cuadras.
If Cuadras brawls with Carmona, it would be a departure from the fight approach that he used in his fights against Roman Gonzalez and Rungvisai. In both of those fights, he elected to through power shots on a sporadic basis rather than wading in and looking to slug. Against the light hitting Carmona, Cuadras can afford to trade a little more, because he doesn’t need to worry about his punching power the way he needed to worry about getting hit as much with anything big. Cuadras will have the advantage in power and boxing ability over Carmona.