By Keith Idec, photo by Tom Hogan/Hoganphotos
NEW YORK – Daniel Jacobs wouldn’t predict how he’ll beat Gennady Golovkin on Saturday night.
Jacobs did guarantee that, unlike many of Golovkin’s previous opponents, he won’t lose their middleweight title bout before it even begins. The WBA world middleweight title-holder has noticed that numerous boxers who’ve faced Golovkin were beaten mentally before their fights started, much the way Mike Tyson intimidated some opponents into submission during his heyday.
England’s Martin Murray came to Jacobs’ mind. Jacobs boxed Murray multiple times when they were amateurs and he remembers Murray being much more aggressive than he was once Golovkin hit him clean early in their February 2015 fight in Monte Carlo.
“We’ve seen it a lot in Mike Tyson fights,” Jacobs said. “A guy previously, in all the different fights, was a totally different fighter. But when he stepped in there with Mike, you can see he was a little nervous, he was a little fidgety, and he didn’t give his best performance. Man, I don’t care about none of that. I don’t care about none of that.
“Listen, I have lived for this moment. Everything that I’ve done in my whole career is for this one moment. I’ve been boxing since I was 14 years old, so this is more than half my life for this one moment. I’m not gonna be intimidated. That’s the last thing that I’m worried about. He hits hard, he cuts the ring [off] – I’m ready for all those things. But the last thing I’m gonna worry about is being intimidated or losing before I go in the ring.”
Having beaten bone cancer, Jacobs can’t be intimidated by an opponent. Surviving after he was so close to death made him mentally stronger than the Brooklyn native ever thought he could be.
“I definitely think I’m a more mentally strong fighter,” Jacobs said of his evolution post-cancer. “A better fighter, too, all around. This is different, though. He’s not cancer. He’s not a life-threatening situation. This is a man coming to inflict some harm on me. But where the cancer helps, and going through all my ordeals helped, was strengthening my mental capacity and allowing myself to, once again, have my back against the wall and have everyone doubt me.
“We live in those moments. I’m reliving those same moments and that same thought process and them same feelings, and questioning myself. At that point, I was what, 23, 24 years old? I’m 30 now. It’s instilled in me. I believe in myself and I believe what I can do. No one’s gonna take that away from me.”
Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) expects to display poise when Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) starts applying pressure in their HBO Pay-Per-View main event at Madison Square Garden (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT; $64.95 in HD).
“Under that type of pressure, you have to have a sense of calmness and stillness,” Jacobs said. “And I’ve learned that. I’ve had tremendous sparring partners in this camp that put nothing but pressure on me, making sure that I’m cool, calm and collected under the pressure. I think I’ve learned that.
“Obviously in a professional fight, there’s more risk. But even still, learning that trait, I think we’ve got it down pat. I’m looking forward to letting my hands flow, being comfortable and having fun. That’s what my team stresses so much – just go in there and have fun, and do your thing.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
