By Allan Fox: Daniel Jacobs (32-2 29 KOs) feels that he should have won the fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) last Saturday night. Jacobs came close to winning, but the judges gave Golovkin the victory by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 114-113, 115-112, and 115-112.
Jacobs says he did enough to win, and he says Golovkin is not a big puncher like many people think in the boxing world. In fact, Jacobs says he’s been in with bigger punchers than Golovkin. Jacobs isn’t saying who he’s been in with that is a bigger puncher. The fact that Jacobs only fought a tiny handful of quality fighter during his career, it would seem unlikely that he’s been in with anyone with more power.
After the 12th round had ended, Jacobs sank to his knees, as if he felt that he had won the fight. He obviously didn’t. He had moved and held most of the 12th round, and fought like he had the win in the bag. That was a dumb mistake by Jacobs. You don’t stall out a fight when it’s close. That’s rule No.1 to being a champion. You’ve got to fight until the very end, and Jacobs didn’t do that. He coasted in round 12, and blew his chance of winning.
“I think I won the fight and I think fans support me on the decision,” said Jacobs after the fight. “I think I won by two rounds at least. I won the fight and I won the decision and all I can do is be gracious in the decision. After the knockdown I told him he had to kill me. When I got up I thought this is all he has? There were many times during the fight I went toe-to-toe because I knew I could. I got back up and I thought I won the fight.”
The problem with Jacobs’ opinion about him winning the fight was the fact that he was the one that was knocked down in the fight in getting dropped in round 4. It’s kind of hard to justify to the boxing fans that you deserve the win when you get knocked down like Jacobs did. Jacobs was hurt in round 9. That’s another problem that he had. He was the only that was hurt in the fight. Jacobs tied up Golovkin frequently in rounds 11 and 12, and did a lot of moving around the ring. While Golovkin was the one coming forward in the championship rounds, Jacobs looked like he thought he had a big lead and could afford to give away the final rounds. You don’t win a fight by doing what Jacobs did.
“My confidence grew wore on, and I went toe-to-toe with him,” said Jacobs about his fight against Triple G. “No one does that. None of his jabs hurt. The way they made his power out to be wasn’t. He was a strong guy. It was a heavy handed guy, but he’s not the most powerful guy I ever fought or been inside the ring with. My idea was to go in there and mentally confuse him, jab him, out-box him, and push him back at times. The best thing he did in the fight wasn’t pressure or power. It was the jab. I’m happy with my performance. I feel like I won the fight,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs didn’t fight Golovkin in a toe-to-toe manner throughout the fight. He briefly exchanged with Golovkin a few times in the fight near the ends of the rounds, but he wasn’t brawling with him like he says he was. That’s imaginary stuff.
As far as Golovkin’s power goes, I don’t know if Jacobs got hit enough in the fight for him to make an accurate judgment of how good his power is. Golovkin was boxing Jacobs most of the fight, and not throwing a lot of big power shots like he normally does. It looked like Golovkin was just trying to make contact with Jacobs more than anything. Golovkin was jabbing frequently and not putting everything he had in his punches. The movement and the clinching that Jacobs was doing made it hard for Golovkin to land a lot of his power shots.
For Jacobs to say he won the fight, you’d have to ignore his knockdown, and his timid style of fighting in order to agree that he won. From what I saw of the fight, Jacobs was the clear loser tonight. He was not doing enough in most of the rounds for me to give him the victory. When you’re facing a popular champion like Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez, you don’t do what Jacobs did by running around the ring trying not to get hit. That’s not the way it’s done. The sad part is that Jacobs’ trainer Andre Rozier was empowering him in the corner, telling him to keep up the good work despite the fact that he was blowing his chance of winning the fight by failing to fight aggressively.
Jacobs thinks his performance against Golovkin will open doors for him and make his future brighter. I don’t think so. It might get Jacobs a rematch in a year or two, but it’s not going to make Canelo want to fight him. Other than Golovkin, Canelo is the only other big name. I can’t see Canelo fighting Jacobs.
