Daniel Jacobs’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he thinks the International Boxing Federation are going to strip IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin soon, and leave the belt vacant for Sergey Derevyanchenko to fight Jacobs potentially.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler might have made a mistake in choosing to use Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) as the replacement opponent for Saul Canelo Alvarez instead of agreeing to let Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs) to fight Gennady on May 5. This move by Team Golovkin will likely cost him his IBF title, because the sanctioning body has now mandated that Triple G must fight Derevyanchenko no later than August 3.
That date won’t work for Golovkin, because it’s too close to the September 15 date for his rematch with Saul Canelo Alvarez. That’s a big money fight, and it’s important that it take place on the Mexican Independence Day holiday so that they can take advantage of the many boxing fans celebrating during that time.
Golovkin should have agreed to fight his IBF mandatory challenger Derevyanchenko on May 5, as that would have given him plenty of time to rest up before his rematch with Canelo in September. By not taking the fight against Derevyanchenko, Golovkin is seen as ducking him, and he’s either going to be stripped of his IBF title anyway or he’ll be position where he won’t have enough time to recover from the fight in time to face Canelo in September.
Derevyanchenko, 32, would be a risky fight for Golovkin if he fights the way he did against Canelo Alvarez last September and in his fight with Jacobs last year in March. Golovkin looked like he was afraid to pull the trigger on his shots, and that could be age or him second-guessing himself too much. If its age, then Golovkin would have a hard time beating Derevyanchenko and he might lose.
Derevyanchenko is not afraid to pull the trigger on his own shots. Golovkin might end up getting beaten up by Derevyanchenko if he’s unable or unwilling to pull the trigger on his shots. When fighters get older, they sometimes lose the ability to let their punches go. Golovkin cannot delay releasing his punches for him to beat Derevyanchenko or Canelo.
Jacobs 34-2, 29 KOs) defeated Maciej Sulecki (26-1, 10 KOs) last Saturday night by a 12 round unanimous decision on HBO at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight was closer than the scores from two of the judges [117-110, 116-112 and 115-112]. It looked like the 12th round knockdown was just enough for Jacobs to get the ‘W’ out of the fight. Hearn thinks Jacobs deserved to win the fight by 4 rounds over Sulecki, and he felt looked sensational. The boxing public overwhelmingly disagrees. On social media, the fans believe that Jacobs did not look great and that he appeared to have lost something from his last fight against Golovkin.
“That’s the fight I want more than ever,” Jacobs said about a rematch with Golovkin. “I want to prove to the world I’m the best middleweight. Yeah, we can fix a couple of things, but that’s all in boxing. You can look back and see what you can do definitely. I want to prove I’m the best,” Jacobs said about wanting to fight Golovkin again.
Jacobs lost to Golovkin last year in March by a 12 round decision. Jacobs disagreed with the judges’ decision, and he’s maintained that he should have been given the victory. If Golovkin beats him again by a decision, it’s quite possible Jacobs will continue to insist that he deserved the victory. At some point it’ll be forlorn to listen to Jacobs denying his losses. Golovkin doesn’t gain much fighting that type of opponent, because there’s no upside to it. If Golovkin knocks him out, it won’t matter, because Jacobs isn’t popular, and he struggles when fighting guys like Sulecki. If Golovkin beats Jacobs by a decision again, he’ll probably deny that he was beaten and chose not to take the high road.
“He’s the mandatory for Triple G,” Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn said about Daniel. ”Obviously, we know it’s likely that he’ll fight Canelo [Alvarez] in September after Vanes [Martirosyan] next week. I love the Charlo fight. I think it’s a brilliant fight for Brooklyn. I think now with the IBF potentially vacant, Sergey Derevyanchenko in line and Danny Jacobs as well. He could be mandatory for both titles for the IBF and WBA. Charlo wouldn’t be for a title, but it would be a very, very big fight,” Hearn said.
Jacobs, 31, is now the WBA mandatory for Triple G, so and I think he would rather wait for his rematch with him than to fight for the vacant IBF title if the belt is stripped from GGG by the sanctioning body. There’s no money for Jacobs to make fighting Derevyanchenko, he used as a sparring partner to help him prepare for his unification fight against Golovkin last year.
The ultimate decision about which direction Jacobs goes in will be made by Hearn. Jacobs has one of three directions he can go in for his next fight:
• Jermall Charlo
• Sergey Derevyanchenko
• Stay busy fighting weaker contenders
No matter how much Hearn wants Golovkin-Jacobs rematch, is not an option right now. Golovkin is fighting this Saturday night against Vanes Martirosyan on May 5, and then he’ll decide whether to face Derevyanchenko next. Golovkin has until August 3 to make that fight. If he doesn’t, then he’ll be stripped of his IBF title, which will make it a lot easier for him to face Canelo Alvarez on September 15 in one piece. If Golovkin takes the fight with Derevyanchenko in June, July or August, he’s going to get worn down a little and softened up for the Canelo fight in September.
”I think that was a very good performance by Danny Jacobs [against Sulecki], because sometimes in these fights against [Luis] Arias and Sulecki, two undefeated fighters that Danny didn’t have a lot to gain, sometimes it can be hard to get motivated for a guy that you feel you’re not going to get credit to beat. I don’t think people realize how good Sulecki was,” Hearn said in trying to explain why Jacobs looked so bad against Sulecki.
It wasn’t a good performance by Jacobs against Sulecki, but if Hearn keeps saying that it was, perhaps enough of the boxing public will start to believe that for them to jump on the bandwagon. Luis Arias was an easy mark, a fighter with zero power, and a low ranking. Jacobs gained nothing from beating him. Sulecki was picked out from the 154 lb. division for Jacobs to fight. The reason Jacobs didn’t look good against Sulecki is because he’s not talented enough to beat the good contenders easily.
We’ve seen that with Jacobs during his career. He struggled and lost to Dmitry Pirog, and he had a challenging time beating Sergio Mora and Caleb Truax. Jacobs has only fought a small handful of good fighters during his 11-year pro career and they are as follows: Golovkin, Truax, Arias, Ishe Smith, Pirog, and Sulecki. Ishe Smith was old, Truax was slow, Arias was a fringe contender, and Sulecki was picked from the 154lb division. The best of the lot by far is Golovkin, Pirog and Sulecki.
Pirog might not have been as talented as Golovkin, but he fought with more courage and fought a smarter fight in stopping Jacobs in the 5th round in 2010. Golovkin fought like he was afraid of Jacobs and wasted almost the entire fight boxing him instead of using his power advantage to go for a knockout. Pirog showed Jacobs no respect at all. He went right after him and seemed to enjoy himself the entire fight.
”He’s 26-0, and he gave a good fight,” Hearn said of Sulecki in continuing his damage control efforts to explain away Jacobs’ poor performance last Saturday. ”Sometimes elite fighters like Danny Jacobs like Danny Jacobs can rise against even better opposition as you saw him do against Gennady Golovkin. So there’s a lot of pressure on him each time he steps into the ring against Arias and Sulecki. He’s [Jacobs] had two good fights on HBO. That was a really good fight,” Hearn said of Jacobs’ fight against Sulecki last Saturday.
The fact that Hearn feels that he needed to go on damage control to explain why Jacobs struggled against Sulecki suggests that he realizes that didn’t look good. It’s too bad Hearn can’t just tell it like it is and say that Jacobs didn’t look good against Sulecki, because the boxing fans would respect him more if he were honest with them.
“Now it’s time for a big marquee fight,” Hearn said about Jacobs’ next fight. Whether that’s Charlo…They’re the kind of fights Danny Jacobs needs next.”
Jacobs doesn’t have a lot of options for big fights. It’s either Jacobs fight Jermall Charlo next or go back to fighting weaker guys. Golovkin is not going to fight Jacobs and neither is Derevyanchenko. Those guys are potentially on a crash course heading towards a fight this summer unless GGG decides to vacate his IBF title. In that case, Derevyanchenko will fight for the vacant IBF title against the next available contender that is willing to fight him. Jacobs vs. Derevyanchenko could be a marquee fight, because Golovkin would be seen as ducking the Ukrainian fighter. Derevyanchenko’s popularity will increase simply because Golovkin will have avoided fighting him twice. The boxing public will see that and conclude that Derevyanchenko must be good because GGG ducked him.
“He was looking for a knockout,” Hearn said of Jacobs about the Sulecki fight. “Looking at the knockdown in the 12th, I’m not sure how he got up from that knockdown, but Sulecki was very, very tough. Going into the fight, Jacobs would have liked a stoppage. But looking back, there wasn’t many times in the fight where Sulecki looked in danger other than the 12th. I thought Danny was hurting him to the body, and I would have liked him to work the body a little more, but Sulecki was awkward. He was very, very big and he was strong, and he looked like he could punch as well. It was a good performance. There were times in the fight around mid-point where it was very, very close, and Danny seemed to accelerate in 8, 9, 10 and 11 in closing the show really well. I had him winning by 4 points. It was a very solid performance against a good fighter. Now we’ll move on to the marquee fights. He must be in one of those next,” Hearn said about Jacobs.
Jacobs didn’t want to keep throwing body shots because Sulecki kept hitting him with short rights and left hooks every time he threw downstairs. Jacobs doesn’t have the chin to take a lot of shots when he’s throwing body shots.
If Hearn is interested in doing the marquee fights for Jacobs from this point forward, he should make the fight between him and Jermall Charlo. That would be a great fight.