By Miguel Rivera
Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch is giving Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) a very good shot to upset the odds when he faces middleweight division ruler Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs).
Golovkin will defend his WBC, WBA, IBO, IBF world titles against Jacobs on March 18th at New York's Madison Square Garden.
In the opinion of Froch, Golovkin is a very good fighter with an outstanding amateur record - but his professional resume is lacking any credible, top level names.
Froch does NOT count IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook as a legitimate win - because the Sheffield fighter moved by two full weight divisions to challenge Golovkin for his titles.
He does consider Jacobs as a legit opponent, and he expects Golovkin to win, but he's also giving the challenger more than a puncher's chance of taking home the middleweight crown.
"He's definitely got a shot Jacobs. He can box and move, he can fight up close, he's fit, he punches a bit as well and he's tough. He's Golovkin's biggest test to date. I have not been impressed with Golovkin, because I haven't been able to say that he's fought somebody or beat somebody that I really respect highly," Froch told BoxingScene.com.
"And I don't include Kell Brook in that, because I do respect him and I do rate him but he's a welterweight, he's too small. All that fight did was show Kell Brook's tough and he's got more heart than I thought he had. He went out on his feet. The fight was retired by the corner, but it didn't show me anything else about Gennady Golovkin that I didn't already know."
"I need to see him in a fight with somebody where I say 'this is a good fight for him and if he beats this guy in style, I'm gonna start to rate him.' And this is the fight, the Danny Jacobs fight is the fight for him to say 'that is a name on my record that people can look at and respect.'
"Jacobs has got a chance, he's really got a chance. What is Golovkin 34, 35? I know what it's like to be boxing at 35. You don't recover from your training sessions, you don't enjoy the sparring as much and twelve rounds kills you. And you get hit more. You're not slipping those jabs. you're not ducking those right hands. Jacobs might be getting Golovkin at the right time."
"But Golovkin is one hell of a fighter. I want to say that. Look at what he did as an amateur, the people he beat... Andre Dirrell, Lucian Bute.... great wins and represented his country in 200 or 300 amateur fights. He's had a lot of fights and that tells me that he's got a lot of miles on the clock, and he's 35. He's obviously a good fighter, but we need to see him in the ring with somebody. You would have to say that he's the favorite, but Jacobs could really pull this off."
