By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Daniel Jacobs wasn’t being disrespectful, just honest.

When he looks at the opponents Gennady Golovkin has beaten on his way to 36-0 and 33 knockouts, he isn’t overly impressed as their March 18 showdown at Madison Square Garden looms. The WBA world middleweight champion’s response to how he would assess the caliber of fighters the Kazakh knockout artist has beaten was, “Oh, B-class. B-class.”

Even Golovkin’s last fight, a fifth-round stoppage of previously unbeaten IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook on September 10 in London, comes with an asterisk, according to Jacobs.

“His top opponent, which was what, Kell Brook?,” Jacobs said Thursday to a group of reporters at the Brooklyn Nets’ practice facility. “But you can’t really consider him. I mean, he’s A-class. But Kell Brook was, in that fight, considered B-class because of the weight difference. He hasn’t really fought an A-class type of guy.

“A lot of people are saying that this is his first real test with a true middleweight, with my size, my speed and everything I bring to the table. So I’m looking forward to taking advantage of that. Because what he’s gonna be in there with is probably gonna be a lot different from what he’s anticipating, or what he’s used to.”

The 29-year-old Jacobs takes a 32-1 record and 29 knockouts into their HBO Pay-Per-View main event. He is widely viewed, at least on paper, as the most dangerous opponent of Golovkin’s 10-year pro career.

The 34-year-old Golovkin, the IBF/WBA/WBO middleweight champion, still is listed as an 8-1 favorite, at least partially because Russia’s Dmitry Pirog (20-0, 15 KOs) stopped Jacobs in the fifth round of their July 2010 fight for Pirog’s WBO middleweight title in Las Vegas. Jacobs’ 85-second knockout of former WBO middleweight champ Peter Quillin (32-1-1, 23 KOs) a year ago at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center is considered the most noteworthy win of his nine-year career.

As for Golovkin, Jacobs said, “His best win? I can’t say what was his best win. It’s hard to say. I mean, he fought around the same level of competition. So you can say this guy, or you can say that guy. I don’t know.”

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