By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs and unbeaten Jermall Charlo got into a heat confrontation last Saturday night while attending the fight between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Jacobs, 31, looked more confident in the confrontation than Charlo, but that doesn’t mean anything. Jacobs was more confident looking than Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin and Dmitry Pirog, and he still lost to both of them. Jacobs still won’t acknowledge that Golovkin beat him, and he’s been saying ever since that he wants a rematch. It might not ever happen though. Golovkin is on another level in terms of the money he’s making right now.
Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) confronted Charlo to talk to him about some comments he’d made about him ducking a fight against him. Jacobs asked Charlo if he’s willing to come to HBO and fight him on that network. Charlo fights on Showtime. Charlo then said he’s willing to fight Jacobs on HBO. Charlo suggested that the two of them skip their next fights and face each other instead. Jacobs is scheduled to fight next month against unbeaten Maciej Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs) on April 28 on HBO Boxing at the Barclays Center. Charlo, 27 will be fighting on April 21 against Hugo Centeno Jr. (26-1, 14 KOs) for the interim World Boxing Council middleweight title at a still to be determined venue on Showtime.
Here’s some of what was said:
Charlo: “If Jacobs want to fight, let’s fight. If you feel like that, let’s skip the [Hugo] Centeno fight. You don’t have to take your next fight either. Let’s skip that s—t. I’ll go to HBO.”
Jacobs: “I’m just trying to figure out what we’re doing. Are we going to go back and forth?”
Charlo: “We can skip that s—t. I’ll get it.”
Jacobs: “I know you’re going to get it, but don’t say, ‘roadrunner, roadrunner.’ That’s what I’m talking about.”
Charlo: “Skip yours, and I’ll skip mine.”
It’s unlikely that Charlo and Jacobs can simply pull out of their next fights. If they’re under contract to face Sulecki and Centeno Jr. next, then those fights are going to need to be taken care of. It’s more important for Charlo that he face Centeno Jr. than it is for Jacobs to fight junior middleweight contender Sulecki. Charlo is fighting Centeno Jr. for the interim WBC middleweight title.
If Charlo wins that fight, he’ll be in a better position to have the WBC 160 lb. title given to him if Golovkin loses to Canelo in their rematch on May 5th. Canelo doesn’t want the WBC title, so it’ll immediately go vacant if he beats GGG. That means Charlo will be installed as the new WBC 160 lb. champion by default. That’s why he must fight Centeno Jr. to put himself in position to become the WBC champion. If Golovkin beats Canelo, then Charlo will have to wait for GGG to face WBO middleweight champion Saunders in a unification fight. If Golovkin wins that fight and if he still wants to stay at 160, the WBC can always order him to fight Saunders. But they’re probably going to wait until Golovkin faces Canelo in a third fight.
Charlo would be a very dangerous fight for Jacobs. That’s a fight that could ruin Jacobs’ dreams of maybe getting a rematch with Golovkin. That’s the only thing that Jacobs is holding out for. Canelo Alvarez isn’t going to fight him. Golovkin can make more money fighting Canelo a second time, and going after WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. Jacobs might not realize it yet, but he has to fight Charlo and he also needs to fight Sergiy Derevyanchenko, because those are going to be his man competition after GGG moves up to 168 in the near future. If Jacobs is going to stay at 160, he’ll have to fight Charlo sooner or later whether his promoter wants him to or not.
Jacobs isn’t the one that makes his fights. It’s his British promoter Eddie Hearn, and he’s already made it clear that he has no intention in matching Jacobs against Charlo. Hearn found Sulecki for Jacobs to fight after failed to get fringe middleweight contender Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan for his April fight. Hearn hopes that the winner or the lower of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Golovkin fight will choose to fight Jacobs. I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Canelo has no interest in fighting Jacobs. He doesn’t exist for him. If Golovkin beats Canelo, he’ll move on and face WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders next. Even if Golovkin loses to Canelo, he’ll still likely face Saunders. Jacobs has nothing that Golovkin wants. He’s someone Golovkin has already beaten. There’s no upside in Golovkin fighting Jacobs again. He’s been there and done that. Jacobs needs to learn from the loss and make sure he doesn’t run when he steps it up against good opposition in the future.
