IBF/IBO/ WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s management will need to start negotiations for a fight against WBA “regular” champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 29 KOs) for a fight that must take place within 120 days from now, as World Boxing Association president Gilberto Mendoza on Monday formally ordered the two fighters to face each other next. If the two fighters are unable to agree to a deal within that time, then the WBA will order a purse bid.
This is bad news for Golovkin, because he was hoping to get a unification match against WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders next. That fight doesn’t look like it’s going to happen unfortunately. Golovkin, 34, is expected back in the ring on November 26 on HBO. They have the date set aside for him. Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) says the fight against Jacobs would be taking place in New York, which is where Jacobs lives.
“The 30-day negotiations period has started,” WBA president Gilberto Mendoza Jr. said to ESPN.com. “They have 120 days to do the fight.”
Jacobs, 29, is eager to face Golovkin, for he feels that he’s got the boxing skills and talent to beat him. Jacobs wants to find out who the better man is between them. For Golovkin, it gives him the opportunity to get two consecutive interesting fights, because he just finished beating previously unbeaten welterweight Kell “Special K” Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) by a 5th round knockout last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London, England. It was a tougher than expected fight for Golovkin, as the judges had the fight very close at the time of the stoppage. One judge had Brook winning 39-37, and the other two had it even at 38-38.
It was not a good performance by Golovkin, who looked slower, and weaker than he had in previous occasions. Golovkin might have over-trained for the fight. His physique looked thinner. It’s unclear whether his trainer Abel Sanchez had focused on a different training strategy for the fight. Whatever it was, he needs to go back to the old style that he had before the Brook fight, because Golovkin was better in the past.
Golovkin had problems connecting with his punches against elusive Brook. Golovkin focused his punches too much in the head area of Brook instead of going to the body, which would have been the smarter thing for him to have done. Brook was using so much head movement that he made it hard for Golovkin to land his shots upstairs. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez failed to get him to redirect his punches to the more hittable body area of Brook, because this would have been area where he could have really taken advantage of him. During Brook’s career, few fighters have attacked him to the body.
“Daniel Jacobs, he is very good fighter. Huge fight, probably in New York,” Golovkin said to ESPN.com. “Absolutely. I am open for everybody. I think right now this is best fight for us.”
Golovkin said he’s interested in fighting Jacobs, but in the next breath, he said he wants the unification fight against Saunders. Golovkin didn’t appear to be too excited when he was saying that he’s interested in fighting Jacobs. The WBA might allow Golovkin to fight the unification match against Saunders rather than facing Jacobs next if the fight can get made. That’s a big if because Saunders has never seemed eager in the past to fight Golovkin. He’s talked about wanting to fight him, but he’s not taken the fight. It would be surprising if the Golovkin-Saunders fight could be made in the next two months in time for Golovkin’s November 26 fight on HBO.
Golovkin is in a mind with him having to follow the orders of the WBA if he wants to keep their title. Of course, he wants to keep the belt because his goal is to unify all the titles. The unfortunate about the WBA ordering the Golovkin-Jacobs fight now is that the fight could potentially slow Golovkin up for a fight against Saunders. Hopefully for Golovkin’s sake, the other sanctioning bodies don’t start ordering him to fight their guys too because that would really mess up his chances of fighting Saunders for the last remaining title not in his possession.
“We want to fight the best, point blank, period. GGG is the best, and that’s the guy that we want,” said Jacobs via ESPN. “I want to prove to the world that I’m the best middleweight. If GGG gets the victory [Saturday], that’s who we want.”
Jacobs knocked out 35-year-old former WBA junior middleweight champion Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora in the 7th round last Friday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania. Jacobs knocked the hapless Mora down five times before the fight was finally stopped in round seven. That was a rematch against Mora, who Jacobs knocked out in the 2nd round last year in August.
The only reason Jacobs fought Mora a second time was because Mora had suffered an ankle injury in getting stopped by Jacobs a year ago. It was probably not the best of ideas to put them back in with each other because Mora was too old, too slow an too weak for him to have any chance of winning the fight. Mora just looked like an old guy that didn’t belong in the ring with GGG. For Jacobs, it was his fourth consecutive successful defense of his WBA title since winning the vacant belt two years ago against Jarrod Fletcher.
The fight for Jacobs against Golovkin is coming at the perfect time for him because he’s fighting at the highest level he’s ever fought at since he turned pro nine years ago in 2007. However, Jacobs has a reputation for having a chin problem that Golovkin could expose in the fight. Jacobs can dish out punishment with his heavy hands, but he has problems with his chin when getting hit hard. Jacobs only has one loss on his resume to Dmitry Pirog from 2010.
Jacobs did not know how to fight the confident Pirog and he was taking punishment from the 1st round until getting stopped in the 5th round. Whether Jacobs has improved since the defeat is the big question. Jacobs’ opposition during the last six years has not been good at all. He had a fight against Peter Quillin last year in December, and that was easily the best opponent that Jacobs has faced during the six years. Jacobs’ other recent wins have come against Mora [x 2], Caleb Truax, Jarrod Fletcher, Milton Nunez, Giovanni Lorenzo, Keenan Collins, Chris Fitzpatrick, Josh Lutheran, Robert Kliewer and Jessie Orta. Those were not good fighters. It’s going to be a huge step up for Jacobs to be fighting someone as good as Golovkin.
Golovkin will be going for his 24th consecutive knockout when he gets inside the ring with Jacobs. That would be a huge accomplishment for Golovkin. His 5th round knockout of Brook was his 23rd consecutive. Brook’s trainer Dominic Ingle tossed the towel into the ring to save his fighter from being badly hurt by Golovkin. Brook was already hurt through from his broken right eye socket. Brook suffered the injury in the 2nd round after he got hit by a big shot from Golovkin. Brook bravely fought the rest of the way with the injury.
This fight will give Golovkin another opportunity to fight a big puncher. He previously defeated the hard hitting Gabriel Rosado, Curtis Stevens and David Lemieux by knockouts.