CHALLENGER DISMISSES STATUS
Jacobs says Golovkin an easy foe compared to beating bone cancer
As he began preparations for the biggest fight of his boxing career, Daniel Jacobs knew the same old training camp would not be good enough.
So Jacobs, manager Keith Connolly and longtime trainer Andre Rozier assembled what he calls his “dream team” to prepare for Saturday’s highly anticipated middleweight unification showdown against Gennady Golovkin at Madison Square Garden ( HBO pay- perview, 8 p. m. CT).
The first thing Team Jacobs did was move their training camp 3,000 miles west to Hayward, Calif., to the gym of highly respected trainer Virgil Hunter, best known for developing light heavyweight champion Andre Ward. For Jacobs, a Brooklyn native, and Rozier, that was a huge departure from the norm.
“I was a little hesitant when we first went out there, but I can honestly say it’s the best camp we’ve ever had,” Rozier said. “Saturday is going to be the two best middleweights on the planet coming together to show you who is No. 1.”
They brought in three tough Eastern European middleweight sparring partners to simulate Golovkin ( 36- 0, 33 KOs), who comes into Saturday’s fight on a 23- fight knockout streak and reigning as boxing’s most feared and avoided fighter. Jacobs ( 32- 1, 29 KOs) is no slouch in the power department, either, having stopped his last 12 opponents — including a first- round KO of previously unbeaten Peter Quillin — since the only loss of his career, a fifth- round knockout by Russian Dmitry Pirog in 2010.
Jacobs left no stone unturned in his preparation. “That’s what you have to do when you’re at this level,” he said. “You have to bring in the best, give it your best and look to perform at your best. I think we have a great opportunity at winning, because we have a dream team and everybody’s offering me their knowledge, everyone’s offering me their expertise, and it’s trickled down to me to allow me to be superior.”
Making his path to this middleweight unification bout more remarkable is his victory against his most formidable foe, one that didn’t wear gloves and hits harder than anyone: cancer.
Less than a year after his loss to Pirog, Jacobs, then 24, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer. A large ma- lignant tumor that wrapped around his spine paralyzed him from the waist down. Doctors told him to forget about boxing again. Jacobs refused to take no for an answer, and 17 months after his diagnosis, with cancer KO’d, he was back in the ring, inaugurating the brand- new Barclays Center in his hometown with a first- round knockout of Josh Luteran.
Beating cancer has given Jacobs what he feels is an edge over any opponent, including Golovkin: unparalleled mental toughness, the feeling that he can handle anything thrown at him. He changed his nickname to “Miracle Man.” Though he’s nearly an 8- 1 underdog, Jacobs does not believe beating Triple G will be miraculous.
What’s likely making Jacobs a bigger underdog than his record suggests are suspicions about his ability to take a big punch, which Golovkin dishes out with regularity. He defends the Pirog KO with justification — the fight happened days after the grandmother who raised him died. In his first fight vs. Sergio Mora in 2015, he was dropped in the first round, though he came back to KO Mora.
“I think a lot of questions will be answered ( Saturday). These are legitimate questions that people have about Triple G and myself, as far as being able to take shots and being able to be in there against a world- class guy,” he said. “I think all those questions will be answered in one night and one shot, because we’re both going to give it our best and there will be no excuses.”
Because of each fighter’s high knockout percentage — Golovkin’s is the highest in middleweight championship history at 92% — it would be a fair assumption that the fight will not go the distance.
“On paper it looks like it won’t go the distance, to fans of boxing and people who know us, it would look that way, but I’ve prepared for every and anything and I will do what it takes to get the victory,” Jacobs said. “I will be ready for whatever I need to do.”