By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Brett Yormark would’ve preferred to have Barclays Center host the Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs fight.

Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) is the contracted face of the Barclays Center’s Brooklyn Boxing brand and has fought there five times since it opened in 2012. But Yormark, chief executive officer of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, understands the reality of the Golovkin-Jacobs middleweight championship showdown taking place March 18 at Madison Square Garden, the Barclays Center’s rival venue in New York, long ago nicknamed “The Mecca of Boxing.”

“Unfortunately, being the type of building – we’re busy [at Barclays Center] with hockey [Islanders] and basketball [Nets],” Yormark said during an interview session Thursday that featured Jacobs at the Nets’ training facility in Brooklyn. “And unfortunately, on that weekend I think it’s a hockey game, if I’m not mistaken, so we couldn’t make that weekend work. And obviously there were a lot of [reasons] why that date was important for the media partner [HBO Sports] and others.

“So was I disappointed? I mean, modestly. At the end of the day, my brand is in the ring at MSG. I kind of like that. My fighter, the guy that we rally around and is one of the faces of Barclays Center is there. So we’ll win the belts, and then bring it back to Brooklyn and he’ll fight again at Barclays. That’s kind of how I look at it.”

Kazahkstan’s Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), the IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion, has fought at Madison Square Garden twice and The Theater at Madison Square Garden twice since bursting upon the American boxing scene late in 2012. He also has fought twice at The Forum, an Inglewood, California, arena that is owned by the Madison Square Garden Company.

K2 Promotions, which represents Golovkin, also has strong ties to Madison Square Garden through its co-owners, the Klitschko brothers. Wladimir Klitschko and retired Vitali Klitschko, both former heavyweight champions, have fought at Madison Square Garden numerous times over the past 15 years.

Tickets to the HBO Pay-Per-View card headlined by Golovkin-Jacobs will go on sale Saturday at noon ET and can be purchased by calling 866-858-0008 or visiting thegarden.com. Prices range from $100 to $1,000, which Yormark considers reasonable based on the magnitude of the event.

“At the end of the day, fights like this are part of the big-event business,” Yormark said. “You saw it with UFC, you’ve seen it with other big events at Barclays or other venues in the marketplace. So I think the fans will support the event. And candidly, and you’re gonna see it in some of our fights … we’re gonna have a big calendar this year of fights and if we wanna compete with different markets and different venues, we’re gonna have to grow the gate. And I think in some respects, this particular fight reflects that [thought its ticket prices]. So I think they’ll do well at the gate and fans will get their money’s worth.”

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