This week end, in New York city, WBA world middleweight champion, Daniel Jacobs will be facing Gennady Golovkin, in a unification fight for his title, and Golovkin’s, “super” status WBA title, and also the WBC, IBF, and the IBO world titles, all held by the man from Kazakhstan.
This is a huge fight for both fighters. Obviously, the stakes are high, and at the end, one man will essentially be recognised as the most dangerous, most exciting fighter on the planet. Millions of dollars are there to be made, and exciting match ups are assured for the victor.
With Jacobs being the underdog, you would have to say, all the pressure is on Golovkin. A loss would be devastating for GGG. This would more than crush all further talks to fight Canelo in the immediate future, and also stop him from completely unifying the middleweight division .
Daniel Jacobs [ W32. L1. [ 29 KOS ] has been down, and beaten before. He was knocked out by Dmitry Pirog, with an overhand counter punch that left him sprawled across the canvas. He knows what it feels like to be beaten , and knocked out, and he knows how to fight back , dig deep and come back. His much talked about, survival of bone cancer, is inspiring to say the least, and how he came back to fight another day was unbelievable. Daniel has said ” im scared of no man, I fear nothing” is probably true, after what he has faced. He beat this terrible disease , and come back to not only fight, but win the middleweight championship of the world. He goes by the name of “Miracle Man”, but for me, Daniel Jacobs is much more than a miracle .
Debuting in 2007, Jacobs quickly established himself in the paid ranks, knocking out opponents, climbing up the rankings, until meeting the Russian up and coming beast, Pirog in 2010. The following year, he was diagnosed with cancer and had a year and a half off , due to sickness , rest and recovery. Since coming back, he has not only came back, but came back with knock out wins , and becoming a world champion. That is much more than a miracle.
Jacobs last 12 fights have all been decided by knock out.
It has to be said that Jacobs opposition has not been world class. This is the sport of boxing, and fighters get offered a fight, or they have to make a defense of their title , or they are told who they have to fight. Most of the time, they can only fight who’s put in front of them.
In 2014, Jacobs fought , the Australian boxer, Jarrod Fletcher, and knocked him out in 5 rounds. The following year, he fought Sergio Mora , and beat him in 2 rounds [ albeit Mora injured his ankle ] . Injury or not, ” Contender ” winner, Mora was well past his best days, and so was Fletcher.
In 2015, Peter Quillan [ 32 wins. [ 23 kos ] was on his own rise to fame and fortune as one of the divisions biggest punchers . Big opportunities and huge money fights were just around the corner for him, but he had to do what he did best, and ice Daniel Jacobs . ” The Miracle Man” was going into the fight as the underdog and was expected to go down and stay down, but in the fight, he came out and rushed Quillan, and didn’t give him a chance to breathe, and finally ended the fight in the 1st round.
The following year, Sergio Mora asked for a rematch and the fight was signed for September, 2016. Mora stuck and moved, and had obviously trained hard for the rematch, but as the rounds went by, there was only going to be one winner and Mora was stopped in the 7th round.
Gennady Golovkin [ w36. 33kos ] made his debut in 2006, after a long [ 350 + ] successful amateur career , competing and winning silver at the 2004 Athens Olympic games. Fighting mainly “under the radar” in Germany, only true boxing people knew how big he was going to be in the sport of professional boxing. I ad followed his career in the amateurs, in the world championships, and I knew he would be a devastating force in the paid ranks. Golovkin was going through fighters like a hot knife through butter, and had racked up a solid record, before focusing his efforts on the bigger stage, and therefore to the land of opportunity. The united states of America. When you meet Golovkin, he is a charming, charismatic, almost humble type of guy, and when you talk to him, he looks at you in the eyes, but you get the feeling he is thinking , whats next!
He is cold, yet warm, all at the same time. He is all business, and knows what he is doing, and where he is going. He reminds me a lot of the Russian great, Kostya Tszyu. [ I remember my wife saying to me about Tszyu , ” what a nice man, a lovely smile, he doesn’t look like a boxer” That was just before Kostya Tszyu knocked down Zab Judah , twice with one punch in 2001.
With fights against the tough southpaw, Kassim Ouma, in 2011, Golovkin showed he could box, take a punch, and he eventually wore down Ouma over the 10 rounds in Panama, to make boxing people take note that Gennady Golovkin had arrived. In 2013, he destroyed the big middleweight, Matthew Macklin, with a sickening , body punch that left Macklin, writhing in pain , as he gasped for air. That same year, he broke down, the ” cerebral assassin” Curtis Stevens , and proved way too strong in the 8th round, for the new York banger. Next up was the former middleweight, world champion, Daniel Geale, and in the fight, Golovkin took a big punch flush on, to land a split second counter of his own, decking the tough Australian boxer. Geale got up, but had had enough of GGG, and the referee stopped the fight in the 3rd round.
Golovkin was fighting all, who would put pen to paper and fight him, and he systematically, broke them all down, and applied controlled , calculated pressure to render his opponents, broken and beaten , before finishing them off in devastating fashion. Marco Antonio Rubio, [ rd 2 ] Martin Murray [ rd 11] , Willie Monroe Jnr [ rd 6 ] David Lemieux [ 8th rd] and Kell Brook [ rd 5. ]
It’s no secret, Daniel Jacobs has trained very hard for this fight. He has brought in Virgil Hunter, to help him prepare, and he has employed good technical boxers in , Avtandil Khurtsidze, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, and Ievgan Khytrov to try and mimic Golovkin’s style. Debatable, if that is a good move, as he has changed his style so much from his days in the amateurs. You can’t mimic the technique, or the power Golovkin has.! Jacobs is super confident going into this fight. He is a world champion, and he is essentially fighting at home, on 33rd street, Madison Square garden, and he believes in his own power. He has a great right hand, and he throws clean, sharp punches, and has good movement, and he is a big, strong middleweight.
Golovkin will also have trained hard for this fight, bringing in tall , mobile sparring partners who can punch, to simulate Jacobs.
In the fight, Golovkin will make himself smaller as he goes to Jacobs body. I believe triple G will go to the body, and then the head. Jacobs will come out trying to establish the jab, and use his range. Golovkin will cut the ring off, and try to get him on the back foot and pin Jacobs on the ropes, and attack the body then hammer upstairs. Jacobs will try to tie him up, and generally try to make Golovkin uncomfortable. I would be throwing uppercuts whenever possible, followed by fast hooks, as I feel GGG is open for them. Golovkin , has a strategy of taking 2 punches to land one of his own, as he knows his one is harder than his opponents. He is also an excellent counter puncher. If Jacobs goes all out in offence, he will get caught by the counter left or right hook , and get stopped early. It’s unfair to Jacobs to say that all he has is a punchers chance, as he is a good boxer, but I just can’t see the fight going any other way, than Golovkin by brutal KO in 3rd round.
Miracles do happen, but not on 33rd street.
Gary Todd is an international best selling author with his books on world champions, and their workouts. He has been involved in all aspects in the sport of boxing for over 25 years. “Greatest ever, boxing workouts“