By Keith Idec
Gennady Golovkin’s trainer doesn’t consider an unusually early weigh-in Friday to be a big advantage for Daniel Jacobs.
Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and Brooklyn’s Jacobs (36-0, 33 KOs) are scheduled to weigh in at 9 a.m. ET on Friday for their middleweight title fight Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. As the bigger guy who has more difficulty making weight than the 5-feet-10 Golovkin, giving the 6-feet Jacobs more time to replenish his body and add weight could be viewed as an advantage for the challenger.
Abel Sanchez, Golovkin’s trainer, doesn’t think Jacobs will benefit much more than Golovkin from the early weigh-in.
“I think it’s an advantage for both guys,” Sanchez said during a conference call Tuesday. “Both guys get to rehydrate and get filled up with the fluids and good nutrition. Gennady’s always been the smaller guy, so Gennady’s not gonna put on extra weight just because the weigh-in’s early. Everybody will always weigh five, six pounds above what he weighs fight night. So it’s not an advantage [for Jacobs]. The advantage is, like I said, for both guys, so that they’re healthy and ready to do what they have to do on Saturday night.”
At least 38 hours will pass between the time Golovkin and Jacobs weigh in and the opening bell rings Saturday night. That’s roughly eight hours more than the time between the David Lemieux-Curtis Stevens weigh-in and the start of their fight Saturday night in Verona, New York.
Nevertheless, Golovkin and Jacobs can add a maximum of just 10 pounds in the 24 hours between the official weigh-in and the IBF’s second-day weigh-in, scheduled for 9 a.m. ET on Saturday.
“I’m not really worried about that,” Jacobs said of the second-day weigh-in. “I’ve done it before in a couple other title matches that I had. It’s nothing new. I don’t plan on being super-heavy anyway, so it’s not like it’s gonna affect the game plan. It’s just a constructive diet like we always have. We’re just gonna make sure we eat properly.
“We just wanna make sure we make weight. And once again, this is a job that I have to get done. The hard work is already put in in the gym. Just make sure the fine-tuning is done. And after the weigh-in, we’ll eat right, weigh in again, and then we’ll continue to remain strong, nutrition-wise, for the remainder of the day, until the fight comes.”
Lemieux blew off the IBF’s second-day weigh-in Saturday morning and was at least five pounds heavier than Stevens when they entered the ring at Turning Stone Resort Casino. Skipping the IBF’s second-day weigh-in was widely viewed as an advantage for the larger Lemieux after he knocked Stevens unconscious in the third round of their HBO “Boxing After Dark” main event.
Golovkin and Jacobs guaranteed Tuesday there will be no such issues before their fight.
The Golovkin-Jacobs weigh-in was scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday largely because the New York State Athletic Commission must regulate another show Friday night in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Irish Olympian Michael Conlan’s pro debut will be the main event of that card, which will be promoted by Top Rank Inc. and televised on delay by UniMas (11 p.m. ET/PT).
“[The early weigh-in] really wasn’t an issue on our side, like Abel said,” said Tom Loeffler, managing director for K2 Promotions, Golovkin’s promoter. “It was a request from the commission because they do have a second show. They have the Top Rank show with Michael Conlan on Friday night.
“So we accommodated the commission’s request and both fight camps didn’t have an issue with the early weigh-in. In general, you could say maybe it’s a slight advantage for Danny because he’s physically a bigger guy. But like I said, from both sides it wasn’t an issue to accommodate the commission’s request.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
