By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Abel Sanchez says the reason why Daniel Jacobs did not perform well against Maciej Sulecki last Saturday night is because of the wear and tear he took in his fight against Gennady Golovkin last year in March. Sanchez states that fighters are never the same after they fight GGG, especially when they go 12 rounds with him.
Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs) barely beat little junior middleweight Sulecki (26-1, 10 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on April 28 in winning by the scores 116-111, 117-110 and 115-112. While 2 of those scores were wide in favor of Jacobs, the actual fight was much closer.
The outcome appeared to be decided in the 12th round with Jacobs dropping Sulecki with a big shot. Interestingly enough, the 28-year-old Sulecki got back to his feet and controlled the remainder of the round against a tired and sloppy looking Jacobs. The scoring by two of the judges was atrocious and not a true reflection of how the fight was played out. Sulecki won the fight against the depleted looking Jacobs. Afterwards more than a few boxing fans commented on how bad Jacobs looked in the contest.
“Danny Jacobs was supposed to demolish Luis Arias and instead had a difficult time with him in his first fight back after [facing] Gennady,” Sanchez said on yesterday’s call. “And now, in his fight against Sulecki, he looks terrible. He gets hit with everything in the book. But the reason being, in my opinion, is that once you go 12-rounds with Golovkin, you’re never going to be the same,” Sanchez said.
Jacobs, 31, was not there to be hit by Golovkin in their fight last year. It wasn’t until the second half of the fight that Jacobs periodically mixed it up with GGG. In that part of the fight, Jacobs took some major shots and was hurt in the 10th after getting caught with an uppercut.
Jacobs was staggered in that round. In the 11th and 12th, Jacobs was slapping with his punches and getting caught by Golovkin. The judges scored it in Golovkin’s favor by the scores 114-113, 115-112 and 115-112. Boxing News 24 gave it to GGG by 9 rounds to 3. Jacobs didn’t do enough to rally in the second half after losing the first 6 rounds. Jacobs complained bitterly that he deserved the win over Golovkin, but the boxing public had no issues with the scoring of the fight.
Given how bad Jacobs has looked in his two fights since the Golovkin fight, the outcome of the Goovkin-Jacobs fight is of little importance in comparison to how bad Daniel has been looking lately. He looks like he’s only 75 percent of what he was against GGG. That’s not good news for Jacobs, because he’s been telling the boxing public that he’s the best fighter in the 160 lb. weight class and that he wants to face Jermall Charlo next. I think that would be a really bad idea if Jacobs serious about that, and I’m not sure that he is. Jacobs didn’t do much talking after the fight when asked at the post-fight press conference about who he wants to fight next. Jacobs laughed and said, “Charlo.” When Jacobs normally wants to fight someone, he bangs the drum for that person, telling the media repeatedly that he wants to fight that person and never shutting up about it. In this case it’s different. Jacobs is saying very little, which suggests that he’s not so excited about the Charlo fight now.
In Jacobs’ first fight after his match with Golovkin, he defeated fringe contender Luis Arias by a 12 round unanimous decision last November. It was a listless, safety-first performance by Jacobs. He fought like he was afraid of Arias from start to finish.
”It’s not just Jacobs – if you go back to [David] Lemieux, to Curtis Stevens, to [Dominic] Wade, to Willie Monroe, they’re never the same after they go rounds with Golovkin. The young man from England also, [Martin] Murray, he’s never been the same,” Sanchez said about fighters never being the same after they fight Golovkin.
It’s true that some of those guys have not looked good since their losses to Golovkin. Here’s a look at the guys that Golovkin has beaten lately and how they’ve performed since:
• Daniel Jacobs – He’s 2-0 since his loss to Golovkin last year, but he’s looked terrible in barely beating Maciej Sulecki and Luis Arias
• Dominic Wade – Hasn’t fought since his loss to GGG in 2016
• Saul Canelo Alvarez – Hasn’t fought since battling to a controversial 12 round draw against Golovkin in 2017
• Kell Brook – Brook struggled and was stopped in the 11th round by Errol Spence in his first fight after his 5th round knockout loss to Golovkin in September 2016. However, Brook looked great in his last fight in stopping Sergey Rabchenko in the 2nd round last March. However, Rabchenko looked like a glorified journeyman against Brook
• David Lemieux – He’s won 4 of 5 fights since his 8th round knockout loss to Golovkin in 2015. In Lemieux’s last fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, he fought horribly in losing a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision last December in Canada
• Willie Monroe Jr. – has won 2 out of his last 3 fights since getting stopped in the 6th round by GGG in May 2015. Monroe Jr. beat John Thompson and Gabriel Rosado after losing to Golovkin. In Monroe’s last fight, he was beaten by Saunders by a 12 round unanimous decision in September 2017
• Martin Murray – He’s posted a record of 7-2 since losing to Golovkin by an 11th round knockout in February 2015. Murray’s only two losses in the last three years have come against George Groves and Arthur Abraham. Those are fighters that Murray likely would have lost to anyway even if he’d never fought Triple G
“Jacobs is probably one of the top three middleweights in the world and Sulecki was hitting him with shots maybe he shouldn’t have hit him with,” said Sanchez.
I’m not sure that Jacobs is good enough to call a top 3 middleweight at this point. I rate Jacobs here in top 10 middleweights in the division:
1. Gennady Golovkin
2. Jermall Charlo
3. Sergey Derevyanchenko
4. Saul Canelo Alvarez
5. Billy Joe Saunders
6. Ryota Murata
7. Demetrius Andrade
8. Daniel Jacobs
9. Tureano Johnson
10. David Lemieux
Jacobs is still a good fighter, but he looks like he’s lost something from his game since his fight with Golovkin. I don’t think Jacobs is going to be able to ever regain what he lost. He’s starting to look depleted. It would be good to see Jacobs and Sulecki fight each other again so that a clear winner could be decided. Their fight was too close to call it a clear victory for Jacobs.
Golovkin will be defending his title this Saturday night against junior middleweight Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) on May 5 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The fight will be televised on HBO Boxing.
“Gennady likes to chop down trees,” Sanchez said about Martirosyan. “We will make an attempt to but it takes two to tango,” Sanchez said about Golovkin throwing body shots. If the guy is running away like Canelo was it is difficult to land those body shots. He hit Canelo with a body shot in the fourth or fifth round and Kenny Bayless admonished him for hitting him in the back. Canelo turned his back while he was running away and got hit with a shot. But Canelo is also a known body puncher and he didn’t throw any body punches. Canelo fought completely different than he fought the forty times before,” Sanchez said.
Golovkin will have a good chance to throw body shots if he wants to against Martirosyan, because he’s not going to have to chase this guy down. Likewise, Martirosyan doesn’t turn his back to his opponents when they throw body shots the way Canelo Alvarez does. Canelo looks like he purposefully turns his back to his opponents when they throw body shots so that he can get them warned or penalized. Referees are supposed to be smart enough to understand this trick to not play into it, but it obviously works for Canelo because he gets away with that move. Martirosyan doesn’t play to the referee the way Canelo does. If Golovkin decides he wants to throw body punches, he won’t need to worry about Martirosyan exposing his back to try and make him look like he’s throwing illegal punches.