Just since January we saw fights featuring two of the best super middleweights (James DeGale and Badou Jack), two of the best junior featherweights (Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton) and two of the best welterweights in the world (Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia).
That streak will continue this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City when unified middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin takes on WBA title-holder Danny Jacobs in a highly anticipated 160-pound showdown (HBO PPV/9 PM ET).
“This will be an action-packed fight, however long it lasts. From one to 12 rounds,” Jacobs (32-1, 29 KO’s) said on Monday afternoon at the Theater at the Garden during the final press conference for the fight.
“I’m very excited,” said Golovkin, who at 36-0 with 33 KO’s may be the most thrilling fighter in the sport. “Just a couple of days for amazing, dramatic show. This is the biggest chance for me and Daniel to show boxing class. I promise we bring amazing show. Just watch TV.”
The fight will be Golovkin’s fifth at Madison Square Garden (third in the main arena following two performances in the theater) but the venue is really home to Jacobs, a Brooklyn native who won a series of Golden Gloves titles as an amateur in the building and has fought multiple times there since.
“This is Gennady’s second home but Danny is also no stranger to the Garden,” MSG’s Joel Fisher said when he took the podium. “At the Garden we have big events. We do big events.”
“I’m glad to be back in New York City,” Jacobs stated. “I’m back in my city, where it all started. I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. I’m so focused. I’m so ready. I want it,” he said.
“For me, its no problem,” Golovkin stated. “It’s a very interesting situation. He’s a resident of Brooklyn but I’m a resident of Manhattan. Madison (Square Garden) is my home.”
Golovkin is coming off an entertaining stoppage win against welterweight title-holder Kell Brook in the UK. In that fight, Golovkin brawled more than expected but it’s not a tactic he’s likely to pursue against Jacobs.
“Every fight is different,” he said. “With Daniel, it’s more serious fight. I know his power. With Kell, after first round, I know his power, too.” “It gave the fans a thrill,” Golovkin trainer Abel Sanchez said of the Brook fight. “It didn’t entice us in the corner.”
After that September fight and after Jacobs dispatched Sergio Mora for the second time, talk quickly heated up for an end-of-the-year showdown. But days led to weeks, weeks led to months and negotiations for the fight dragged out, leaving both men to sit out the final quarter of the year.
“Unfortunately, Tom (Loeffler, Golovkin’s promoter) could not finish, or they couldn’t come to terms,” stated Sanchez, a vocal advocate for his fighter’s activity.
“Gennady wants to fight three, four times a year. When this happens it’s very frustrating.,” said Sanchez. “This is finally the fight that’s going to give the fans what they want and give us that mental threat…the perceived threat of Danny’s right hand and great left hook. So, I’m happy that we’re in the ring now. We would have liked to have been in the ring in December. It’s still not Saturday night so I don’t want to jinx anything.”
It would be hard to jinx anything related to Saturday’s fight, however. On paper, it’s one of the best fights that could be made in the middleweight division. “Fights like these,” said HBO’s Peter Nelson, “only come together when fighters want to be great.”
JABZ
· Regardless of who wins, don’t expect it to go the distance. Golovkin has a 91% knockout ratio. Jacobs’ KO percentage is 90.
· Loeffler announced two new partnerships Golovkin is now involved with: Hublot watches and Chivas Regal whiskey. The former company presented “GGG” with a personalized watch. Chivas, meantime, showed an upcoming commercial featuring the fighter.
· More than 20,000 fans are expected to be in attendance for the fight and it’s projected to be sold-out by the time the opening bell rings.
· Jacobs had a familiar face in his training camp: former junior welterweight title-holder Chris Algieri. Algieri was the nutritionist for the camp and was in charge of Jacobs’ diet heading into fight night.
· Jacobs only has one loss but it was a brutal KO to Dmitriy Pirog in 2010. The light-hitting Sergio Mora also knocked him down. So, does Golovkin put any stock into those performances? “It’s nothing,” Golovkin said. “Right now, he’s much better, more experienced. With that fight, you know, it was perfect shot. It doesn’t matter. Yeah, OK. He (Sergio’s) not big puncher but it was the perfect shot. He was not ready for this.”
· Even though Jacobs is a live underdog, much of the talk on Monday still revolved around boxing’s yet-to-be-consummated “biggest” fight: the one between Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. “With Golden Boy, we’re still in regular communication with Eric Gomez,” Loeffler stated prior to the conference. “There’s really no update. If we can make the fight, certainly we’ll do it.” Regardless, Loeffler is already proceeding with plans for Golovkin’s next fight. That could come in June in Kazakhstan against WBO title-holder Billy Joe Saunders. “If there’s an opportunity to fight in June, we’ll take that,” he said. Loeffler said he hopes Golovkin would win Saturday, again in June and then proceed to a planned September showdown with Alvarez. “It would be the biggest fight in boxing,” he said.
