Lederman Wonders Why Jacobs Isn't Fighting Gennady Golovkin

by David P. Greisman

Gennady Golovkin was originally supposed to face mandatory challenger Tureano Johnson on April 23 before the middleweight contender suffered an injury. Now Golovkin is expected to defend his titles against Dominic Wade instead.

But with Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez moving toward a potential clash later in 2016, HBO’s Harold Lederman is wondering why another top 160-pounder, Daniel Jacobs, isn’t trying to insert himself into the date with Golovkin.

“Where the hell is Danny Jacobs? Telling everybody he wants to fight the best in the world. He doesn’t want to fight GGG,” Lederman told BoxingScene.com. “If he did, he’d be in the ring at Barclays Center on [April] 23 against GGG. It’d be a great fight. It’d be a chance for Danny Jacobs to achieve real greatness. Do you think Danny Jacobs is standing in line to fight GGG? Like hell he is. If Danny had real guts, he’d have signed the contract already. If not, sign it tomorrow because Harold Lederman says he should sign it. It’s the fight that the world wants to see. That would be a great fight.”

Of course, the big issue is that Jacobs is signed with Al Haymon, and the boxing adviser doesn’t have a working relationship with HBO, which has Golovkin under contract. Beyond that, Haymon is featuring his fighters on “Premier Boxing Champions,” the series he conceived, wooed investors for and is now running on several networks, and has a relationship with Showtime, which aired Jacobs’ sensational first-round technical knockout win over Peter Quillin in December.

“To hell with the obligation. You go where the money is,” Lederman countered. “Danny Jacobs would make millions of dollars fighting GGG. He’d be the real, real, real unified middleweight champion of the world if he beats GGG [NOTE: Alvarez is the lineal champion but is not yet considered to be the best 160-pound fighter]. You can’t get involved in politics with all that gain. Danny Jacobs could become legendary if he could beat GGG at Barclays Center on [April] 23. He’d be so big. We’d have to go back to Sugary Ray Robinson to find a middleweight that big if Danny Jacobs can win that fight.”

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