By Dan Ambrose: Daniel Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) says that fighters are not running from IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) like the way some people believe. Jacobs says the fighters are running towards him to try and get a fight against him.
Jacobs says he wants to face GGG next after he faces unbeaten junior middleweight contender Maciej Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs) on April 28 in their fight on HBO Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Jacobs says that Golovkin is just looking to take on soft opposition now.
“I do see myself being victorious,” Jacobs said about his fight with Sulecki. “My goal is to win however way I have to for me to get the victory. I am on the cusp of a world title opportunity. I know I’m the mandatory for the WBA title now. I’m just waiting for my opportunity. I know these guys aren’t in a rush to fight me. Him being a world champion is going to make it harder, because Golovkin has all the belts,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs shouldn’t look past his fight with the 28-year-old Sulecki, because he could lose that fight if he’s not switched on. Even if Jacobs, 31, is at his best, he could still lose the fight. Sulecki is a good fighter with heavy hands and a lot more power than his record would indicate. Jacobs doesn’t react well to pressure, and he never had. If Sulecki can take the fight to Jacobs and make him uncomfortable, he’ll throw the fight away by being overly cautious. That’s how Jacobs fights when he’s met with pressure. He gets self-conscious and starts fighting timidly, and he does things that undermine his own effort like switching to southpaw. That’s how Jacobs was knocked down in the 4th round in his 12 round unanimous decision loss to Golovkin in March 2017. Jacobs was trying to switch from orthodox to southpaw when he was nailed by Golovkin with a big shot and dropped. Jacobs brags often about how he got up and was ready to start going to war with Golovkin, but he reality is he didn’t do much after he got back up and still ended up losing the round, and the next two rounds after that.
”It’s great that I’m the mandatory because it puts me in a great position,” Jacobs said. ”As long as I can look impressive in this fight, popular demand from the fans is something that is going to get me to the top as well. I’m looking forward to someone that is coming to bring it,” Jacobs said.
If Sulecki comes forward aggressively like Dmitry Pirog did against Jacobs, he’ll have a pretty good chance of winning this fight. Sulecki hits about as hard as Pirog did, and he knocked Jacobs out in the 5th round in their fight in 2010. Some boxing fans believe that Jacobs quit in that fight after getting knocked down. Jacobs closed his eyes when he was down and laid there for several moments while the referee was standing over him. Suddenly, Jacobs popped up off the ground like he wasn’t hurt at all. It looked to some like Jacobs was going to quit, but then he had second thoughts and jumped up to try and continue fighting. However, the referee stopped the contest while Jacobs was down on the canvas when he saw that his eyes were closed. Jacobs got upset after he realized the fight had been stopped, but what he did he expect the referee to do. When a fighter is motionless on the canvas with both eyes closed, the referee has to stop the fight otherwise they’ll be raked over the coals by the boxing fans if precious seconds were wasted on waiting on a badly hurt fighter to get back up.
Even with Jacobs on the verge of becoming the World Boxing Association mandatory challenger, it doesn’t mean he’s going to get a title shot against Golovkin any time soon. Under the best-case scenario, Jacobs is looking at least 2020 before he has a chance to get a title shot. I don’t Jacobs getting a title shot against Golovkin this year or next year.
Jacobs is saying that if he doesn’t get a title shot against Golovkin in his next fight, he’ll go after former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. Unfortunately, that might be a bad idea for him to do that because it’s a risky fight for him.
”I want the champion next. I want the belts,” Jacobs said. ”I want Golovkin next, and if I can’t get the winner of Golovkin-Canelo, if that fight were to happen, then I want [Jermall] Charlo.”
Well, Jacobs ISN’T getting a fight against Golovkin next, and he can forget about the pressure from the boxing public being enough for him to get the fight. That’s not going to happen. Jacobs already had his chance against Golovkin last year, and he lost. Jacobs blew it by running too much and choosing to waste time fighting defensively. Instead of changing his stance to southpaw constantly and running, Jacobs should have stood in the center of the ring and fought it out. He didn’t do that, and he wasted his time.
”I think the likelihood of a Saunders fight is really, really hard,” Jacobs said about WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders unlikely to fight him. ”He’s been ducking me for a long time, so I’m not even going to entertain it anymore. If it presents itself, I’ll be all for it. I’m trying to go down the line for people who are considered the best in the division,” Jacobs said.
The best thing for Jacobs to do would be for him to take on Jermall Charlo if he can get the fight against him, because that’s how he can create public pressure on GGG if he beats him in an impressive manner. Jacobs can’t just fight defensively and beat Charlo by a close decision. Jacobs must get in the pit and beat Charlo by slugging with him, because the last two fights he’s had have been disappointing affairs with him playing it safe. That’s not going to work for him to impress the boxing public enough for them to put pressure on Golovkin to fight Jacobs.
”If Triple G is going to accept it, but I think he’s trying to go down the line for scrubs and it’s just about what sells now,” Jacobs aid. I think Triple G that has been presented as the devastating monster, I think the ties are kind of flipped now. I don’t think everyone is running from him. I think everyone is running after him now. So that kind of telling you how boxing is and how boxing works,” Jacobs said.
Golovkin hasn’t exactly been taking on scrubs lately. In his last three fights, he’s fought Saul Canelo Alvarez, Jacobs and Kell Brook. Those aren’t scrubs. Golovkin had intended on fighting Canelo in a rematch in his next fight on May 5th, but the Mexican fighter pulled out of the fight last week, leaving GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler with just 4 weeks to find a replacement opponent.
Loeffler first tried to get Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan to take the fight, but he pulled out of it this week. Now Loeffler is trying to line up Vanes Martirosyan for the fight, but the International Boxing Federation is pushing for GGG to defend against the IBF mandatory Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
”If Sergiy [Derevyanchenko] was to get that opportunity, I’d be more than happy for him,” Jacobs said. That would be a great fight for both fighters. Sergiy has the grit and the skills beyond belief. He’s a really tough guy. I don’t know who would win that fight, even though I’ve been in there with both guys,” Jacobs said.
Derevyanchenko worked as a sparring partner to help Jacobs get ready for his fight against Golovkin last year. It would be interesting to know if Jacobs feels he could beat Derevyanchenko. Jacobs says he doesn’t know who would win between Golovkin and Derevyanchenko. I bet Jacobs believes he can beat Derevyachenko. I don’t think he could though.