By Keith Idec
It’s been a very satisfying Saturday for Danny Jacobs’ manager.
Keith Connolly, who has worked with Jacobs his entire career, expects to feel even better March 18 at Madison Square Garden. That’s when Brooklyn’s Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs), the WBA world middleweight champion, will challenge Gennady Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), the WBA “super” middleweight champion, for 160-pound supremacy in an HBO Pay-Per-View main event.
Golovkin and Jacobs both acknowledged on social media Saturday that their representatives have reached an agreement to fight that night, following more than two months of negotiations. HBO Sports is expected to announce the fight and interview Golovkin during its three-fight telecast Saturday night (10 p.m. ET/PT) from The Forum in Inglewood, California, where 51-year-old legend Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs, 2 NC) will partake in his farewell fight against Long Island’s Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18 KOs).
“It’s definitely gratifying that the fight’s done,” Connolly told BoxingScene.com. “To the 90 percent of boxing fans that thought Danny was trying to duck the fight, we proved them wrong. On March 18th, we’re gonna prove them wrong again. We’re gonna beat Triple-G and prove not only are we the best middleweight in the world, but that we’re at the top of the pound-for-pound list.”
A Golovkin-Jacobs purse bid scheduled for Monday at the WBA’s headquarters in Panama City, Panama, has been canceled now that the two sides have agreed to terms. A WBA-mandated bout between Kazakhstan’s Golovkin and Jacobs was first discussed for December 10 on HBO, but negotiations became complicated enough to push the fight back three months and move it to HBO’s pay-per-view platform.
Connolly was confident all along that the deal would be finalized because Jacobs truly wants the fight.
“It’s definitely gratifying to prove people wrong,” Connolly said. “Everybody thinks they know what’s going on behind the scenes, but they really don’t. We’re ready. We’re gonna be ready March 18th and we’re happy that it’s in New York. It’s a New York fight. New York is the center of the world. And I think the fight will be the center of the world that night. I think that’s where all the attention will be.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
