Sergio Mora says WBA ‘regular” 160lb champion Danny Jacobs has the punching power to hurt IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin if he can get to his chin in the first three rounds. Mora believes that Jacobs has the better overall punching power than Golovkin. However, he feels that Golovkin has the better technique, which will kick in after the 3rd round if he’s still in the fight.
Mora sees Jacobs as having a suspect chin that Golovkin could take advantage of if he can get him past the third round.
It’s still not a done deal that Golovkin and Jacobs will be fighting next in early 2017. The fight hasn’t been negotiated yet. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler has spent the last three months trying to negotiate a fight with Jacobs in dealing with his manager Al Haymon. Nothing has been accomplished other than Golovkin losing a fight date on HBO for December.
To say that Golovkin has wasted valuable time in his career is an understatement. If Golovkin doesn’t get the fight against Jacobs in March, then he’ll really have wasted his time. But at least he’ll have learned not to bother trying to make a fight the Jacobs in the future.
Mora said this to Fighthype.com about a fight between Jacobs and Golovkin:
“Daniel Jacobs is the hardest puncher I’ve been in the ring with,” said Mora. “The dude has the power. If he cracks Golovkin, we’re going to see how Golovkin acts when he has a little shakiness to him. We’ve seen him get hit. Jacobs will hit him. So it’s going to be something where whoever takes each other’s power better and I think Jacobs probably punchers a little harder than Golovkin. But here’s the thing; Golovkin has better technique. As the rounds progress the real power is going to show up. Golovkin ultimately passes the fourth round becomes the harder puncher and the better fighter. Jacobs is going to be dangerous for three rounds, and after that his technique falls apart and the chin is still suspect. But he’s the hardest puncher I’ve been in the ring with. The jury is still out on Golovkin, because he’s still not fighting the superstars. I just think he got put on an HBO pedestal where everyone expects him to be a Canelo, but he’s not a Canelo. He’s never going to be a Canelo. The guy can barely speak English. Canelo can barely speak English. But he has a smile, but so does Golovkin. And he can sell the tickets and fill the seats. Golovkin, he’s popular, especially for a guy that can’t speak English and from Kazahstan. But he’s not Canelo. There’s too much risk with no reward [to fight Golovkin]. People hate hearing that, especially Golovkin fans, but it’s the truth. It’s not making business sense, and it’s not making sense for any of these fighters to take that risk,” said Mora.
I think Golovkin’s past opponent David Lemieux has better punching power than Jacobs and Golovkin, and yet it didn’t help him. Golovkin still knocked him out. I think Curtis Stevens has better power than Jacobs as well, and he wasn’t any better off.
Power is overrated. If you don’t have the chin or the technique, you’re going to lose against Golovkin. I think Jacobs is going to get knocked out by Golovkin if the fight ever happens, and I’m not sure that it will.
Some of the stuff that Mora was saying about Golovkin made zero sense. Mora was saying that Golovkin can’t speak English, but he speaks better English than Canelo. The reason why Canelo is more popular than Golovkin in the States isn’t because he smiles or that he speaks better English, because Canelo rarely speaks to the media in English other than a few words here and there. The reason why Canelo is so popular in the States is because he has a large built in fan base that supports him.
Golovkin doesn’t have a huge built in fan base. He has to win fans over by achievement in a slow process, which is based on him being very active in fights on HBO Boxing. That’s why it’s not in Golovkin’s best interest to lose fight dates when negotiations bog down like they did with the Jacobs fight.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler should have let the fight go to a purse bid so that Golovkin could have fought in December. Instead, Loeffler wasted a lot of time trying to negotiate the Jacobs fight and STILL didn’t get it done.
The WBA has now given the two fighters seven days to complete the negotiations before they order a purse bid. I’d be very surprised if Loeffler is able to make a deal with Jacobs’ management before the seven-day negotiation deadline is up. Loeffler needs to learn a lesson from this. He needs to have a timeline for each negotiation. If the timeline is up, then he needs to either move on or let it go to a purse bid.
Mora lost twice to Jacobs by knockouts. I don’t know why Jacobs wasted time fighting Mora a second time other than him being a safe fight for him. There really wasn’t any point in Jacobs fighting Mora the second time after stopping him in the 2nd round last year in August. Never the less, Jacobs fought Mora in a rematch last September and stopped him in the 7th round.
It was a pointless fight, and hopefully the last time these two guys fight each other.
Mora hasn’t been in the ring with many big punchers other than Jacobs. The biggest punchers Mora had faced before fighting Jacobs twice was the following fighters: Peter Manfredo Jr., Vernon Forrest, Elvin Ayala, Shane Mosley, Brian Vera, and Grzegorz Proksa.