By Jeff Aranow: Tickets are still available for this Saturday’s middleweight contest between WBA/WBC champion Saul Canelo Alvarez and IBF champ Daniel Jacobs at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says there will be 20,000 fans in attendance on Saturday night, which means it’ll be a sellout if he’s correct with his prediction. As of now, tickets are very much still available for the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight.
The T-Mobile seats 20,000. As of now, however, there are still tickets available for the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight. Obviously, that’s an indication that the fight isn’t on the scale of Canelo’s two fights against Gennady Golovkin, both of which took place at the same venue at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Three world titles will be on the line for this fight. Canelo will come into the fight with his WBA and WBC middleweight straps, and he’ll be looking to take Jacobs’ IBF belt. These are titles that were recently held by Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs). He lost his IBF belt when he had to vacate it in a hurry late last year when the International Boxing Federation wanted him to defend it against his then mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko by August 4th. Golovkin couldn’t defend against Derevyanchenko, and then face Canelo a month later on September 15th at the T-Mobile. As such, GGG sacrificed his IBF belt by letting it go. Golovkin then lost his WBA/WBC titles to Canelo by a close 12 round majority decision. Canelo looked like the better fighter on the night, but it was a narrow win. It was nothing like the one-sided fight that many boxing fans now say it was in recollecting with their arguably now foggy memories of the fight.
“What I know is that I have the physical advantages, and I look forward to using my physical advantage, my reach, height, range, and being that I also have speed, power, ring IQ, as well, that’s what I feel like is going to make me victorious,” Jacobs said.
The taller 5’11 1/2″ Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) has made up his mind that he’s going to use his size advantage over the 5’8″ Canelo to defeat him on Saturday night. Jacobs has never lost to a fighter that was considerably smaller than him like Canelo. Jacobs has ALWAYS dominated fighters that were far shorter than him. Canelo, 28, will be giving away 3 1/2″ inches in height. That’s a lot. Canelo will need to punch upward for him to watch Jacobs’ chin. One thing that Canelo has going for him in this fight is he’s a body puncher, and he doesn’t need to be able to throw upwards to reach Jacobs’ midsection. The question is whether Canelo will be able to get close enough for him to land his body shots? Against Golovkin, Canelo had little trouble of walking him down to the center of the ring to throw to hid midsection in their rematch last September. Golovkin made the mistake of backing up to the center of the ring and standing still when Canelo would walk forward to pressure him. While some boxing fans applaud Golovkin for staying at center ring, other fans think GGG should have kept moving and not let Canelo walk up on him to hit him at close range to the body. Still other fans believe that Golovkin shouldn’t have moved backwards at all, period. They feel that Golovkin should have kept Canelo trapped against the ropes and stood his ground in that location rather than being seen backing up to the center of the ring. Since Golovkin stood his ground in the center of the ring and fought it out with Canelo, he might as well have stayed in the same position when he had Canelo against the ropes. At least if Golovkin had kept Canelo against the ropes, it would have limited Canelo’s ability to get out of the way of his power shots.
Where is the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight?
The Canelo vs. Jacobs will be taking place on Cinco de Mayo weekend at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The location has become Canelo’s favorite venue whether he wants to admit it or now. Canelo has used the T-Mobile Arena in four of his last six fights against Golovkin [x 2], Amir Khan and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Canelo seems to use the T-Mobile Arena only for the risky fights and the bigger ones. The lesser fights where there’s no threat of him losing, he’s gone elsewhere to New York to fight Rocky Fielding and AT&T Stadium to face Liam Smith. Those were easy fights for Canelo, as those guys aren’t elite level guys.
How to watch Canelo vs. Jacobs?
The Canelo-Jacobs fight can be seen on on DAZN, the giant streaming service, and on Sky Sports in the UK. To watch the fight on DAZN, one must subcribe with them, but it’s easy to to by going to DAZN.com.
Can Canelo handle Jacobs’ size
Canelo recently moved up to super middleweight to defeat WBA World champion Rocky Fielding on December 15 last year. Canelo fought well in stopping the taller 6’1″ Fielding in the third round at Madison Square Garden in New York. In facing Jacobs, Canelo is fighting what many boxing fans believe is a super middleweight in essence. Jacobs is thought to rehydrate into the 180s, although he denies it. To guard against Jacobs from having a weight advantage, Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy will have a 10 lb rehydration limit for both fighters that will cap their weight at 170 lbs on the morning of the fight this Saturday on May 4th. There will be a secondary weigh-in for the early morning on Saturday. Both guys can’t be above 170 lbs. In theory, the rehydration limit will hurt Jacobs and help Canelo. Whether it works out that way is guesswork. Canelo looks pretty huge too after he rehydrates. So this is something might be just a waste of time on Golden Boy’s part in having the rehydration clause in the contract. Jacobs likely won’t be hurt by it, and there’s a possibility that it could hurt Canelo, who is very big at the weight. What we do know is Canelo has stamina problems that have shown themselves in the later rounds of his two fights against Golovkin. Canelo got off to a quick start in both of those fights, and then gassed out in the second half and allowed Golovkin to creep back into the fights. Jacobs hasn’t shown that flaw in his game. If anything, he fights better in the second half of his fights. Jacobs finished strong in his loss to GGG, and in his recent wins over Sulecki and Derevyanchenko. That was the difference in both of Jacobs’ last two fights. He turned it on in the last six rounds, and was able to beat those guys based on his superior conditioning. This Saturday’s fight will likely be no different. Jacobs arguably is the better conditioned athlete than Canelo, and has the superior cardio working for him. Canelo is an excellent six to eight round fighter, but he’s not made for 12 round fights. He’s a guy that is an elite level guy for half of his fights, but not for the second half. That’s what makes him vulnerable. The thing is, Canelo usually has his opponents either knocked out in the first eight rounds or so far behind on the scoreboards that it doesn’t matter if they come on strong in the later rounds.
Jacobs is a big underdog with the odds-makers
The odds-makers see Canelo as the clear favorite to win on Saturday. Instead of the odds getting closer, the odds are widening in Canelo’s favor with the bettors. It’s now close to 4 to 1 for Canelo. They don’t see Jacobs as being able to do the job against the younger fighter Canelo. It’s easy to understand why the odds-makers are picking against Jacobs. The New Yorker almost lost his last two fights against Derevyanchenko and Sulecki. He was beaten by GGG in 2017. Canelo would likely defeat Sulecki and Derevyanchenko in a more convincing manner than Jacobs.