Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) is rumored to be looking for a fast knockout of Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) on Saturday to shut down the people who have concerns about him following his sluggish performance against Kell Brook on September 10 last year. There was a lot of criticism that Golovkin took after the Brook fight despite him winning by a 5th round knockout. Brook hit Golovkin frequently with his best shots, and it looked to some like the only reason Tripe G won the fight was due to Brook suffering a broken eye socket.
Brook had his way with Golovkin at times in the fight. Golovkin missed frequently with his shots, and he wasn’t able to hurt Brook at any time in the fight other than injuring his right eye. Brook wasn’t stunned from Golovkin’s shots, and he was making his miss the entire 5 round fight.
” Among the rumors in the fight hotel lobby is talk @GGGBoxing wants to finish Daniel Jacobs early to scuttle the Brook fight concerns.,” said Lance Pugmire on his Twitter.
If Golovkin’s plans are to get Jacobs out quickly on Saturday night, he could be playing into the hands of the New Yorker. Jacobs has the speed and punching power to hurt Golovkin if he gets sloppy early. If Jacobs connects with something big while he’s still fresh in the first round or two, he could open up with a storm of shots to finish Golovkin off the same way he did against Peter Quillin.
We saw how Brook was able to hit Golovkin repeatedly with shots in round 2 when he hurt him with an uppercut. Brook followed that punch up with a number of other hard punches that Golovkin ate. If Brook hadn’t stopped punching, he might have finished Golovkin off right there. That’s the difference between Jacobs and Brook. When Jacobs has an opponent hurt, he tries to finish them with punch after punch until they either drop or the referee steps in to stop the fight. Brook backed off from Golovkin when he didn’t have to in round 2. By doing so, Brook undercut his efforts.
Jacobs says he received some pointers from light heavyweight champion Andre Ward during his training camp for the Golovkin fight. These are things that Jacobs could use during the fight on Saturday night to get the better of GGG. Jacobs isn’t saying what Ward told him, but it’s got to be something very worthwhile for him to be giving instructions. Ward has seen Golovkin fight obviously, and he must know how he would go about beating him. If Jacobs can apply what Ward told him, he could send Golovkin skittering down to his first career defeat in the pro ranks.
“Just because he’s done these things to other opponents, those guys aren’t me,” Jacobs said to the latimes.com. “Andre [Ward] and I have had several one-on-ones and he’s even gotten up in the ring with me one time to show me some techniques I’m grateful for. I’m like a sponge.”
Jacobs’ job will be made easier if Golovkin tries to turn the fight into a “drama show” on Saturday night, because he has the better hand speed and size. If the two fighters start throwing bombs at each other one after another, Jacobs will have the speed to get his shots in quicker and possibly without Golovkin seeing them. In boxing, it’s often the punches that you don’t see that do the most harm to do you.
It doesn’t matter how good your punch resistance is sometimes. If you don’t see a punch coming, you can be hurt badly. The shot that Jacobs hurt Quillin with in the 1st round in 2015 was a simple right hand. There was nothing really powerful about the shot. What made the punch so devastating were the speed and the unexpectedness of it. Quillin obviously didn’t think that Jacobs could come out so quickly and fire a right hand at the time that he did. When that punch landed, Quillin wasn’t ready for it, and he wound up getting badly hurt by the shot.
What Golovkin’s boxing fans and his coach Abel Sanchez don’t realize is that all the fighters in the past that he’s beaten, they don’t matter at all, because none of them were as good as Jacobs. These guys don’t have the same combination of size, speed, power, athleticism and overall talent that Jacobs possesses. Golovkin has fought some good opponents during his career, but never has he faced anyone with the kind of talent that he’s going to be dealing with on Saturday night when he faces Jacobs.
Golovkin needs to wipe his whole career slate clean and see this as his first true test of his boxing career. He’s got to unlearn all the bad habits he picked up from stomping his 36 prior opponents, because he cannot use those bad habits against Jacobs and expect to get the same results. Golovkin can’t learn a new way of fighting at this point in his career, because he’s been fighting the same way for so many years.
I think Golovkin has bought into his own hype to where he now believes all the glowing press that he’s received from boxing writers and the fans. When you start believing your own hype, you’re heading for trouble. Golovkin doesn’t seem to realize that he’s been facing largely marginal opposition through most of his career.
Golovkin is going to be facing the real thing on Saturday night when he gets in there with Jacobs, and I’m afraid that he’s not going to be ready for this experience. When Jacobs jumps on him and starts pounding him with shots, I think Golovkin is going to come unglued just like he was in round 2 against Brook. The only difference is that Jacobs won’t back off after he hurts him with big shots.
If Jacobs hurts Golovkin on Saturday night, I think he’ll end it. Jacobs will do what he did against Quillin by hitting him with nonstop punches until he either drops to the canvas or the referee steps in and stops the contest. Golovkin is a good fighter, but he’s never been in with a guy like Jacobs. This is a situation where Golovkin is facing Jacobs at the wrong point in his career in facing him when he’s at his peak. Dmitri Pirog fought Jacobs when he was on his way up 7 years ago and he was able to take advantage of that by stopping him in round 5. If Pirog was still fighting today, I believe Jacobs would beat him with ease and stop him. On Saturday, Jacobs will show the boxing world how much he’s improved since his fight with Pirog.