Jacobs on Golovkin Fight at MSG: We Know It’s Gonna Be a Sellout

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Daniel Jacobs isn’t quite sure what percentage of fans inside Madison Square Garden will be rooting for him to beat Gennady Golovkin on March 18.

Brooklyn’s Jacobs just knows that “The Mecca of Boxing” will be full when he challenges Kazakhstan’s Golovkin for middleweight supremacy.

“I know a lot of people believe in me, and I know we’re gonna do well come March 18th,” Jacobs said during a recent sit-down with reporters at the Brooklyn Nets’ training facility. “This is a special time. Madison Square Garden, pay-per-view, the biggest fight that can be made in the middleweight division. I mean, what more could you ask for?

“He has an amazing fan base and here I have an amazing fan base as well. So we know it’s gonna be a sellout. We know it’s gonna be a really great turnout. Hopefully the pay-per-view numbers matches as well. But we know, fight-wise, it’s gonna be an entertaining fight for however long it lasts.”

The 29-year-old Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) opened as an 8-1 underdog against the 34-year-old Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs). Their HBO Pay-Per-View main event still is highly anticipated because Jacobs is a big, strong middleweight who, like Golovkin, has knocked out almost all of his professional opponents (88 percent).

Organizers of the Golovkin-Jacobs event anticipate a sellout because Golovkin’s last fight at The Garden – an eighth-round stoppage of Montreal’s David Lemieux (36-3, 32 KOs) in October 2015 – drew a sellout crowd of 20,548 and because Jacobs has a considerable fan base in his native New York.

“It’s gonna be a lot of Jacobs fans,” Jacobs said. “I can guarantee you that. He has a large fan base, but in New York it’s my biggest fan base. And then this is the fight that everyone’s gonna come out for. You know, people are like, ‘Oh, you’re fighting Sergio Mora? I’ll catch it on TV.’ But the Triple-G fight? Everybody’s coming out for this fight. This is that level of fight, where not only if you support me, but if you’re a fan of the sport, then you wanna come see this fight.”

Tickets for the Golovkin-Jacobs fight are priced higher, however, than admission to the Golovkin-Lemieux show because it’s a bigger fight in New York and purses for Golovkin and Jacobs are higher than what Golovkin and Lemieux were paid.

To purchase tickets for the Golovkin-Jacobs card ($100, $200, $300, $400, $600, $1,000), visit thegarden.com or call 866-858-0008.

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