By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Size doesn’t matter to Gennady Golovkin.
That’s the stance his trainer, Abel Sanchez, has taken as the Kazakh knockout artist has prepared to fight Daniel Jacobs. The 6-feet Jacobs stands two inches taller than the 5-feet-10 Golovkin and should out-weigh him by at least five or six pounds once their fight starts Saturday night at Madison Square Garden (HBO Pay-Per-View; $64.95 in HD).
None of Jacobs’ physical advantages will matter, according to Sanchez.
“He’s used to sparring and he’s used to fighting guys at that weight,” Sanchez said. “Again, he’s a small middleweight. I think we’re beginning to see that, with all the seven-day and the 30-day weigh-ins and the weights at the fights. So we’re starting to see that he is a smaller middleweight [than] the guys he’s fighting.”
Sanchez remains as confident as usual in Golovkin’s ability to beat Jacobs because he continued to fare well against bigger sparring partners throughout his recently completed training camp at Sanchez’s gym in Big Bear, California.
“I watched him in there sparring with [super middleweight prospect] David [Benavidez] and Julius [Jackson] and even with John Jackson – and they’re so much bigger than he is,” Sanchez said. “But he just seems to have a way. He’s always been the little guy. He has a way to adapt to their size.”
Sanchez said Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) will weigh his normal 169 or 170 pounds when the Jacobs bout begins. Golovkin’s trainer figures Brooklyn’s Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) will weigh at least 175 pounds come late Saturday night.
Japan’s Nobuhiro Ishida, who stands 6-feet-1½, is the tallest opponent Golovkin has encountered in recent years. England’s Martin Murray is the same height as Jacobs.
Golovkin stopped Ishida and Murray, but Jacobs expects his size advantage to be one of the key components in him scoring what would be considered a huge upset.
“I’m the bigger guy,” Jacobs said. “But boxing is a tricky game, because sometimes that might not make a difference. But I do believe it’ll be a big difference in this fight. I believe my size and my speed and my IQ, it will all add up and make me victorious.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
