By Jake Donovan 

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs share a common opponent in Gennady Golovkin. All three bouts produced disputed decisions in the end—fittingly with both boxers landing the camp of common opinion in disagreeing with the final outcome for the other.

Two fights with Golovkin resulted in a widely criticized 12-round draw and a disputed majority decision win for Alvarez in Sept. ’17 and Sept. ’18. Most fans believe that the reigning World middleweight king should’ve lost both fights, or at the very least faring no better than with a draw in their rematch.

That viewpoint is shared by Jacobs, who came up just short in his own 12-round battle with Golovkin when the two collided in March ’17. Golovkin escaped with his middleweight titles and unblemished record still intact with a close, debatable unanimous decision win, one that Jacobs firmly believes should’ve went the other way.

 

It’s not a consensus opinion but one which carries weight with plenty in the industry—including the man he will stare down on May 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Yes, obviously I seen the fight. I've seen the fight,” Alvarez (51-1-2, 35KOs) noted when asked for his thoughts on the bout during a recent media conference call. “The fight was very close, it could have gone either way.”

Unlike the scoring in Alvarez’ own two fights with Golovkin, there wasn’t a dissenting scorecard among the three judges for Golovkin-Jacobs.

Scores of 115-112 (twice) and 114-113 all landed in favor of Golovkin, whose 23-fight knockout streak came to a close but whose title reign extended to 18 successful defenses. His subsequent draw with Alvarez and two-round wipeout of Vanes Martirosyan would tie him with Bernard Hopkins for the all-time middleweight record of 20 defenses before dropping a hotly contested majority decision in their rematch last September.

Jacobs believes to this day that it never should’ve even reached that point, as does Alvarez.

“For me personally, I tend to appreciate (boxing to slugging) in those fights,” Alvarez admits in the subjectivity of scoring. “For me, Jacobs won the fight.”

Alvarez and Jacobs will collide for the lineal middleweight championship along with a slew of alphabet belts, in a bout which will stream live on DAZN. Interestingly enough, waiting in the wings for the winner is yet another potential fight with Golovkin.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox