By Aragon Garcia: IBF middleweight champion Danny Jacobs isn’t afraid of finding himself on the receiving end of a questionable 12 round decision against Saul Canelo Alvarez when it comes to the scoring of their May 4 fight. With the eyes of the world on the Canelo-Jacobs fight, ‘The Miracle Man’ Jacobs feels there’s going to be a massive amount of pressure that will be bearing down on the three judges for their DAZN streamed mega-fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Whether there’s pressure on the judges or not, Jacobs is going to have to fight a lot better than he’s shown in his last four fights for him to beat Canelo. The general perception is Jacobs has lost something from his game since he was beaten by Gennady Golovkin in 2017. Jacobs will need to find his way back to being the fighter that he was against Sergio Mora if he wants to have a chance of beating Canelo on May 4.
Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) says the judges will be held accountable for their scoring of the Canelo fight on DAZN. What Jacobs, 32, has going for him is he’s talking about scoring ahead of time, which will put a spotlight on the three judges that will be working his fight against Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs). Additionally, Jacobs is promoted by powerhouse promotional giant Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing USA, who is has quickly become a huge force in the U.S. Some fans believe this will help Jacobs be given fair scoring by the judges rather than being on the receiving end of a set of scores that make no sense to the fight that took place inside the ring.
Canelo has been involved with three controversial fights that have taken place in Las Vegas against Gennady Golovkin twice, and Erislandy Lara. Canelo won two out of those three fights, and was given a draw in a third. Some boxing fans think that Canelo’s record in those three Las Vegas fights should be 0-3, but for some reason the scoring seems to go his way. In looking at those fights, it’s easy to see why the judges scored them the way they did.
Golovkin failed to use the right game plan in his two fights with Canelo, and he made it impossible for the judges to give him the win in either of those contests. In the first fight, Golovkin stood on the outside, just threw just jabs most of the fight. GGG looked like he was afraid of getting countered by Canelo, so he stayed on the outside for the full 12 rounds. Canelo landed the cleaner, harder shots during the match. Even though Canelo only two or three hard shots in each round, his punches were the better ones, and that made it relatively simple for the judges to score a lot of the rounds in favor. Of course, Canelo wasn’t busy enough for him to get the decision, but he still won six rounds in the eyes of the judges, and the fans.
“I do feel there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the judges, and we’re going to make note of that, and keep everybody accountable, because we’re going to be going in there and risking out lives and fighting for everything,” IBF middleweight champion Jacobs said about the judges that will be assigned for his unification fight against WBA/WBC middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on May 4.
Jacobs saying that the judges will have pressure on them doesn’t mean that he’s going to win the fight. The way Jacobs fought Gennady Golovkin in 2017, and most recently Sergiy Derevyanchenko, is going to make it hard for him to win a decision against Canelo. Jacobs will win some rounds on May 4, but he won’t win the contest against Canelo if he doesn’t change the way he fights.
In Jacobs’ fights against GGG and Derevyanchenko, looked afraid to sit down on his shots. Jacobs stayed on the run against GGG and Derevyanchenko until late in both fights. By then, he was tired, and he didn’t have the power to hurt either guy by that point. Fighting like that against Canelo is going to put Jacobs in a bad position to win a decision.
Is Canelo unbeatable by decision?
There’s a lot of fans that believe that Canelo, because of the hype behind him, and the massive money that he brings in to the sport and to Las Vegas, can’t be beat right now by a decision. Alvarez has become the new Floyd Mayweather Jr. of the sport of boxing in North America. This is an unproven theory that some fans with them seeing conspiracy behind Canelo seeming to be unbeatable when fighting in Las Vegas, Nevada. But if there’s any doubt in Jacobs’ mind whether he can win a decision over Canelo on May 4, then he’s going to need to change his fighting style for him to get the knockout that he supposedly needs to win the fight.
That means Jacobs is going to need to do these things for him to increase his chances of scoring a knockout over the 28-year-old Canelo Alvarez on the night:
1. Don’t move as much. Stand and fight
2. Throw sustained combinations of six to eight punches consecutively.
3. DON’T back up at any time against Canelo. The main reason Triple G lost the rematch with Alvarez on September 15 last year is because he gave ground whenever Canelo would come forward. Knowing how judges score fights, in giving rounds to the aggressor, GGG made a massive mistake in backing up when pressured by Canelo. A fighter can backup against a less popular guy, or an opponent they know they can dominate and knockout, but you don’t you don’t use that tactic against A-side superstar fighter in his own backyard. Golovkin lost track of A. who he was fighting B. where he was fighting C. how U.S judges score fights. GGG blew his only chance of winning by NOT using the right game plan against a superstar fighter in a venue that favored him. It wasn’t a robbery. It was a case of Golovkin not being aware of his surroundings, and what was needed for him to win the fight. Triple G used the wrong tools for the opponent he was facing inside the ring last September. The game plan that GGG used was one that would have worked against the likes of Vanes Martirosyan, Willie Monroe Jr. or Kell Brook, but not against Canelo.
“We want to make sure everybody gets paid for what they do. We want to keep people accountable for judging fights the way they see it, not based on influences from the crowd or influenced from any other source,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs is already sounding like he’s jaded, and not viewing Canelo’s past fights the correct way. Its a bad look for Jacobs to be talking about the judges for the fight. That makes him look like a victim, which is how he acted after his loss to Golovkin in 2017. Instead of taking responsibility for his loss to Triple G by failing to fight aggressively and stand his ground in the first six rounds, Jacobs complained that he should have been given the win. Jacobs didn’t want to look at his fight with GGG in an objective manner, and admit that he didn’t do what he had to in order to beat Golovkin.
Jacobs instead played the victim, and came across like a fighter that was unwilling to admit they made mistakes. Jacobs can’t learn from his mistakes from the GGG fight, because he won’t admit that he failed to fight the right way. That tells you that Jacobs will continue to use the wrong game plan in the future. We already saw that in Jacobs’ fight with Derevyanchenko last October. Jacobs was running around the ring, tiring himself out, losing power on his shots, and getting worked over. It wasn’t until the last three rounds where Jacobs stopped running, due to him being tired, and stood and fought Derevyanchenko. Jacobs was able to get the better of his opponent to pull out a close 12 round split decision. For Jacobs to have any chance at all against Canelo, he’s going to need to stand and fight him, which it’s unlikely he will.
In a predictable manner, Jacobs will use the same failed game plan that he employed against GGG two years ago, and he’ll get the same less desirable results. Jacobs will probably afterwards that he should have been given the win, and his promoter Hearn will fall in lockstep behind him by agreeing with him to give him cover. Jacobs won’t learn from the fight and improve the way smart fighters do. Fighting is like being in a war. You’re supposed to learn from your battles. Canelo admitted that he made mistakes in his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, and he improved from the loss. Canelo retooled his game, and came back a more efficient fighter with new tools and armament that he’s used to stay unbeaten ever since. Jacobs doesn’t look like he’s learning from his fights, which is why he’s going to lose to Canelo on May 4.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” –
George Santayana