By Eric Baldwin: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez admired the job Danny Jacobs did last Saturday night in fighting Triple G hard for 12 rounds in a losing effort. It was a game performance by Jacobs, but not quite good enough for him to get the magical ‘W’ to become the No.1 fighter in the 160 lb. division. Sanchez says Jacobs will become a world champion against at middleweight once Golovkin moves out of the division to the 168 lb. division.
That’s positive news for Jacobs that Golovkin’s trainer thinks highly enough of him to predict that he’ll be a world champion once again in the future. As good as Jacobs fought last Saturday, it’s not a given that he’ll be a world champion again once GGG clears out. Jacobs might have to go through the likes of Jermall Charlo, Saul Canelo Alvarez or David Lemieux to win a world title. Those are all big punchers. Jacobs might not ever get past any of them.
“It may have made a difference, who knows?” said Sanchez to Fino Boxing about Jacobs coming into the fight with Golovkin at a rumored 180+ lbs. last Saturday. “Danny fought a good fight. It was a fire fight. We came out with a win. Danny will be a champion once Gennady leaves the division,” said Sanchez.
Jacobs might not feel like waiting until Golovkin leaves the division for him to become a world champion, but that might be the reality that he faces. Golovkin has already put Jacobs in the rearview mirror and is moving on. If Golovkin wins his next two fights at middleweight against Billy Joe Saunders and Saul Canelo Alvarez, then there won’t be any real reason for him to backtrack for another fight against Jacobs. There would be if their fight had brought in big numbers on HBO PPV, but it doesn’t appear that the match brought in a lot of buys with the boxing public.
The fight didn’t resonate with the fans unfortunately. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler wants to match him against the biggest names possible to maximize his earnings and accomplishments. Jacobs offers very little for Golovkin in comparison to two or three fights against Canelo and fights against Gilberto Ramirez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and other top super middleweights. Jacobs doesn’t bring enough to the table for Triple G to go back and fight him again.
For Jacobs to win another world title at 160, he’s going to have problems trying to get through the likes of David Lemieux, Jermall Charlo or Canelo. If Jacobs is going to be coming down from the 180s every time he needs to fight at 160, it’s hard to predict how effective he’ll be in the future. Jacobs is about to turn 30-years-old, and he’s likely going to get bigger as he ages. If he’s resistant to moving up to 168, then he’ll need to take a lot of weight to make the 160 lb. limit each time. Golovkin didn’t really attack Jacobs in the way that Charlo, Canelo and Lemieux would. None of those fighters would box Jacobs the way that Golovkin did. They would be trying to knock Jacobs out with power shots. Lemieux would be very dangerous to a guy like Jacobs because he would look to finish him off if he knocked him down.
Jacobs’ best chance of winning a world title after Golovkin moves up is for the belts to be split apart once again. With all the belts separates, the talent pool will be split going after the different belts. Charlo will go after one belt while Canelo and Lemieux will go after two of the others. If Jacobs gets lucky, he might only need to beat someone like Billy Joe Saunders, Avtandil Khurtsidze or Ryota Murata. Those are potentially winnable fights for Jacobs without a lot of danger. But if Jacobs has to go through Lemieux, Charlo or Canelo to win a title, he’s going to have a lot of problems.