By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Size might matter after all in the Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs fight.

Jacobs skipped the IBF’s second-day weigh-in Saturday morning for their middleweight title fight Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. In accordance with IBF rules, neither fighter could weigh more than 10 pounds over the 160-pound limit at its second-day weigh-in at 9 a.m. ET Friday.

Golovkin weighed 169.6 pounds on Saturday morning. By failing to appear at the IBF’s second-day weigh-in, Jacobs forfeited his right to fight for Golovkin’s IBF title in this HBO Pay-Per-View main event (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT; $64.95 in HD).

Their scheduled 12-round fight will proceed, though only Golovkin’s WBA, IBO and WBC titles will be on the line.

The IBF implemented second-day weigh-ins as safety precautions so that boxers who participate in fights for its world and regional titles are limited in how much weight they can gain by the morning after official weigh-ins. The WBA and WBC don’t conduct second-day weigh-ins.

The 5-feet-10 Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and the 6-feet Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) had more time than usual to add weight after the New York State Athletic Commission’s official weigh-in Friday morning because it took place at 9 a.m. ET. The NYSAC typically weighs in fighters early in the afternoon on Fridays for Saturday night shows, but the NYSAC had to regulate the Top Rank card in The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Friday night and requested an unusually early weigh-in for the Golovkin-Jacobs card.

Jacobs weighed in at 159.8 pounds Friday morning, slightly more than Golovkin (159.6).

Roughly 38 hours will pass between the time Kazakhstan’s Golovkin and Brooklyn’s Jacobs officially weighed in and the time their fight starts. The heavily favored Golovkin and his trainer, Abel Sanchez, said throughout this week that Jacobs’ size advantage won’t matter in their fight, and that they weren’t concerned that the additional time to add weight and replenish would be a greater advantage for the bigger Jacobs.

Sanchez also has said that expects Jacobs to out-weigh Golovkin by five or pounds once their bout begins. Golovkin, Sanchez and Jacobs could be reached for comment Saturday morning.

This marks the second straight Saturday that a middleweight missed an IBF second-day weigh-in for a fight. Montreal’s David Lemieux skipped one March 11 for his HBO “Boxing After Dark” main event against Brooklyn’s Curtis Stevens in Verona, New York.

Lemieux (37-3, 33 KOs), who looked noticeably bigger than Stevens (29-6, 21 KOs) in the ring, knocked Stevens unconscious with a crushing left hook in the third round at Turning Stone Resort Casino. Stevens was removed from the ring on a stretcher, but passed all of the precautionary tests administered at a local hospital.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.