Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez doesn’t think there is anyone in the middleweight division that can beat Golovkin right now and that includes WBA ‘regular 160lb champion Daniel Jacobs. Sanchez rates Jacobs as a good fighter, who only has one loss on his resume from his defeat to Dmitry Pirog six years ago. But he doesn’t see the 29-year-old Jacobs as being able to go the distance with Golovkin when the two fighters face each other on March 18 on HBO PPV at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Sanchez as seen all the wins that Jacobs has compiled since his loss to Pirog in 2010, but he sees those guys as being in a different class as Golovkin. Jacobs’ wins over those fighters proved that he can beat them, but they mean nothing for what he’s about to deal with when he gets inside the ring with GGG.
Sanchez sees everything changing for Jacobs once he gets hit by Golovkin in the fight. Everything will be different once Golovkin lands.
“It’s big news for me,” said Golovkin. “I am very excited. I think it’s a very big fight and a great fight for you guys to watch. Danny is an amazing fighter. He is a tough opponent. Hopefully, I fight three times next year. There are big plans for 2017, but right now I am focused on Jacobs and I am here to fight.”
Sanchez said this to Fighthub.com about a fight between GGG and Danny Jacobs:
“Danny Jacobs has great credentials. The only fight he lost was against Pirog,” said Sanchez. “He’s had eight knockouts in a row since then. I don’t think Danny fights Golovkin the same way he fought the other guys, and the way he fought Quillin. I think Golovkin is going to put on a great drama show. He respects him a lot. He’s going to be respectful of what Danny has. He thinks he’s a good fighter. He’s got great skills. He has a great right hand. But that’s against those guys, and not against Golovkin. Once he steps in with Golovkin and Golovkin lands, the mood changes. I think people now are upset because of what was done to them by the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. It’s going to take a couple of big fights. They’re going to punish us. It’s going to take two or three big fights before they get back in the buying mode. That $99 tag for a dull fight is hurting us now.”
Jacobs will very likely be looking to land his right hand power shots, because that’s what he always does. In Jacobs’ loss to Pirog, Jacobs landed some big power shots with his right hand. The problem was, Pirog took the shots, and hit him back over and over again until Jacobs went down in the 5th. Pirog used a lot of head movement and angles in attacking Jacobs.
In the 5th, Pirog tagged Jacobs with a right hand that put him down on his back. Jacobs was laying there on the canvas without stirring for several moments. By the time he wanted to get up, the referee had halted the fight. Sanchez thinks the referee stopped the fight too soon, but he appeared to have done the right thing. Jacobs was looked like he was unconscious from the right hand that Pirog hit him with. It would have been crazy for the referee Robert Byrd to start counting for a fighter that looked as hurt as Jacobs was.
Jacobs usually knocks his opponents out with an accumulation of blows. If Golovkin is going to be hammering him back with power shots the entire time, it’s going to be very difficult for Jacobs to land more than one shot at a time. That was his main problem against Pirog. Jacobs couldn’t put his shots together, because Pirog kept nailing him with major shots as soon as he would land anything.
In response to all the boxing fans asking for Golovkin to move up to fight light heavyweight Andre Ward, Sanchez said, “Why doesn’t he move up to fight Klitschko. That’s crazy. No one asked Marvin Hagler to move up. The people saying these things have never been in your position. You have to do what’s best for the fighter and what’s best for the situation. The Kovalev-Ward fight, I just read there was a rematch clause. I just ready a couple of days ago where Ward in an interview where he said everything is going to be right. Wait a minute. You signed a contract. So you move up to fight who? You move up to fight Ward. Impossible because you’re never going to be on an even playing field. I’m sure Kathy [Duva] and Roc Nation agreed over the points for the rematch. Now it’s being renegotiated. You can’t do business that way. There’s no reason for us to do business with that kind of situation. I think there are a lot of other options out there. If you’re talking 175, that’s the only option they’re talking about. Adonis or anybody else wouldn’t want to get caught in the middle of that and prolong him fighting only two or three times a year or only one time a year, because it takes so darn long to do that to do that to negotiate that. Gennady’s almost 35. He’s going to be in April next year. So we’ll fight four times next year. I think it’s bad for him and bad for boxing. He’s one of the torch carriers of right now that people want to see fight. Just the fact that he sells out arenas, people want to see fight, and we don’t have much longer to do that. I don’t think anybody at 154 to 160 [can beat Golovkin]. I think there’s only three guys at 168 that can go the distance with Gennady. If the fights at 160, Danny gets knocked out. Danny is probably the most skilled fighter we will have fought to date. He’s got very, very good skills, and he’s got a great right hand. Can he keep away from Gennady? That’s going to be the million dollars question,” said Sanchez.