By Allan Fox: Danny Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) is ready to fight whatever style Saul Canelo Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) brings to the table in their middleweight unification match. Jacobs says slug or box Canelo, it’s up to him what he wants to try to do against him in their fight on May 4 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. But whatever Canelo tries to do inside the ring, Jacobs, 32, wants him to know that he’s not Gennady Golovkin, and he wont be able to do the same things against him that he did against the slower Kazakhstan fighter, who feels has a basic style of fighting.
(Photo credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
Jacobs’ legs looked rubbery throughout his last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko last October. Jacobs was forced to move a lot because of the pressure that was constantly being put on him by the 33-year-old Derevyanchenko, who was like a slower version of GGG, but without his two-fisted punching power. The unrelenting pressure that the Ukrainian Derevyancheko put on Jacobs had his legs looking weak from the third round. This had a negative impact on Jacobs’s power, as he was unable to punch with any authority through most of the rounds. Derevyanchenko was the one landing the harder blows in the first 10 rounds. In the 11th and 12th, Jacobs stopped moving as much, and he was able to get more power on his shots, but he was tired by that point in the fight, and not strong enough to hurt Derevyanchenko with anything.
“We both have experience against Golovkin, but we’re totally different fighters,” Jacobs said to ESPN’s First Take. “We’re both boxer-punchers, and both possess different attributes. You can’t expect Canelo to have the same success [that he did against GGG]. I can switch southpaw. I can go side to side. Golovki just comes forward. So preparing for that, you have to be ready for everything that I bring to the table. If you want to bang, we can bang. If you want to brawl, we can brawl,” Jacobs said.
Canelo won’t be able to back Jacobs up to a spot where he can hit him with the same kind of shots that he was nailing GGG with in their rematch last September, but he’s going to be backing him the entire fight. The judges are going to take account of Jacobs’ defensive movement, and very likely going to score the fight to the aggressor Canelo. If Jacobs doesn’t understand that the main reason Triple G lost his rematch with the superstar Alvarez last September was because he gave up too much ground, then he’s going to lose in the same way Jacobs wants to fight differently than Golovkin to try and defeat the 28-year-old Alvarez, but his game plan may prove to be far worse. Jacobs must be able to stand and fight for him to beat Canelo. If not, then he’ll end up losing like the past fighters – GGG, Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara – that attempted to beat Canelo by staying on the move. Using movement against only works if it’s just small movements, not someone running around the ring to avoid him. Floyd Mayweather Jr. used very little movement to defeat Canelo in 2013. Mayweather mostly stood in the center of the ring, standing his ground, jabbing Canelo, and moving his head and torso backwards to avoid his power shots. The judges had it easy scoring the Mayweather-Canelo fight, because Mayweather stood his ground and out-boxed Canelo through 12 rounds. Jacobs can’t win against Canelo if he’s going to follow Erislandy Lara’s game plan for the fight, which we already saw in 2014 that didn’t work. Jacobs has to be more like Mayweather, and less like GGG and Lara if he wants to beat Canelo. That means staying in one spot, preferably in the center of the ring like Mayweather did against Alvarez, and beating him with jabs, power shots, and flurries.
“All the fights gave me experience, but the Golovkin fight gave me that much more experience,” Canelo said to ESPN’s First Take. Everything surrounding that fight [Golovkin] made me fight that way,” Canelo said about why he came forward and slugged with Golovkin. “But more so was how trainer Eddy Reynoso, who came up with the game plan [to beat Golovkin]. He said, ‘In order to beat Golovkin, you have to push him back,’ and that’s exactly what we did,” Canelo said.
The experience Canelo got from the first fight with Golovkin was clearly negative experience. Alvarez fought a poor fight, and he lost it by at least four to five rounds in the court of public opinion with the boxing fans. It doesn’t matter how the judges scored the fight. Canelo lost the fight in the eyes of the world, and nothing can change that. He was given a draw, but he lost the fight. In the rematch, Canelo surprised Golovkin by coming forward. GGG was unprepared for the pressure, and made the same mistake he’d made in the Jacobs fight in 2017 by backing away from him. Golovkin had lost most of the last six rounds against Jacobs by backing up and not standing and fighting when Daniel was coming forward in the second half of the fight. Golovkin should have quickly adapted, with the hel of his trainer Abel Sanchez, to stand and fight Canelo. GGG failed to do that for whatever reason. Was it Sanchez’s fault for not giving GGG the right instructions to stand his ground or was it him who made the blundering mistake to retreat. Whatever the reason, Golovkin gave up space to Canelo, and that lost him the fight. Still, Canelo faded badly in the second half of the fight, and that allowed Golovkin to come on and make it close with the scoring. The 12th round was pivotal to Canelo eking out a narrow 12 round unanimous decision win by the scores 115-113, 115-113 and 114-114. GGG backed away from Canelo when put pressure on him in the 12th and deciding round. The judges saw Golovkin backing up, so they gave the round to Canelo. It was mental mistake that GGG made in the 12th that cost him the fight, but he’d making that same mistake all throughout the fight with adapting, and understand what he needed to do for him win the rounds. The experience that Canelo gained from the second fight was that he could beat GGG with pressure. That’s not rocket science. It was a simple case of one fighter choosing to come forward, and the other guys making a silly mistake of giving up ground against a superstar fighter fighting in own venue. Golovkin was misguided if he thought he could beat a fighter like Canelo with the way he was fighting. GGG barely beat Jacobs fighting like that in 2017. Golovkin should have learned from that fight that you cannot backup against your opponent if you want to beat them.
“Canelo Alvarez is one of the best, if not the best, in the division, and in all of boxing,” Jacobs said. “So in order to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. That’s why this fight is so big. We’re the two best middleweights in the division. You know you’re going to get action. Fearful? absolutely not. I fear no man,” Jacobs said.
The way that Jacobs fought Derevyanchenko last October, he’s not going to stand and brawl with Alvarez on May 4. Jacobs will move, pick his spots to throw quick, slapping shots with no power, and then get back on his bike to move some more. As such, Canelo will land the harder blows in every round, and likely win a convincing 12 round decision, if not a knockout. Due to his constant movement, Jacobs’ punches had nothing on them. He was slapping at Derevyanchenko the entire fight, and he was getting nailed. That’s why Jacobs barely won the fight by a 12 round split decision. He still won only because how slow Derevyanchenko was in terms of hand speed. If he had more hand speed, he would have won that fight, and probably knocked Jacobs out. Jacobs is going to have to make a stand against Canelo if he wants to win. Jacobs doesn’t have the legs to move around the ring for 12 rounds and still get the better of Canelo. Jacobs has to treat the fight like Mayweather did against Canelo by using minimal movement, and beat by being the better fighter with his hand skills and upper body movement.
