GGG narrowly defeats David Jacobs – KO streak ends

On March 18, 2017, two premier middle weights: Gennady Golovkin (35-0, 33 KOs) and Danny Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) put all their title belts on the line before a Barclays Center, New York audience. In what proved to be a great fight, contrary to belief -- Jacobs was able to make this a highly competitive fight worth the pay-per-view price tag.

Granted, Jacobs was knocked down early it went off script when GGG's power faded in the mid to late rounds. Jacobs chin was suspect to begin with, as he was knocked out easily by Dmitry Pirog back in 2010. One could argue, Pirog was the original "GGG" as he hailed from Russia and had real heavy hands for a middle weight, sadly, his career ended early due to a serious back problem/injury.

With the help of HBO, Golovkin has built his own career defined by heavy hands. As fight fans, we expected him to beat a prime Jacobs who's defining wins were against a distracted and fading star in Peter Quillen and over the hill Sergio Mora.

Headlining only his second pay per view event, GGG likely felt the pressure to close this fight in "big drama show" fashion. It wouldn't surprise me if that mentality disrupted his game plan. GGG wound up being lucky to escape with a decision win. Given Boxing's history of poor judges and scorecards, this fight could have gone either way and derailed the showdown between Canelo vs GGG this fall. Even the knockdown was a bit fortuitous for Golovkin as it appeared to be an off balance shot more than Jacobs was hurt. See the video for yourself.

Let's give the Danny Jacobs a lot of credit -- he came to win and almost boxed GGG to victory. I thought he won most of the championship rounds. GGG really lost a lot of steam with all the solid body work Jacobs did. We saw the Kazakh fighter become one dimensional and production greatly dropped from the early rounds. He looked to end the fight on one punch rather than rely on his jab, which sets up his power to begin with.

If you're Canelo Alvarez, you were basically awarded the blue print on how to defeat Golovkin. Jacobs footwork is much better than Canelo's, however, the Mexican fighter is a better combination puncher, counter puncher, and hurts the body much better than Jacobs does. If he executes, I see Canelo hurting GGG more so than Jacobs was able to do.

Too bad for Golovkin, he got rattled a bit and so went his knockout streak in the first fight against a formidable opponent. Jacobs did more "good" things down the stretch, and this ultimately tired GGG, hurt him, or the brutal power punch myth that is GGG was disproven. I thought Jacobs won many of those close rounds by his boxing skill and hard work. Plus, GGG just wasn't able to close the fight and hurt Jacobs down the stretch.

Last but not least, boxing is a business. By stating the obvious, we know Jacobs upsetting GGG would have derailed the fight all fans want to see: Canelo vs GGG. The economy of this pay-per-view event is too much for boxing and the publicity of the sport. Sorry, Jacobs - it might not be what you want to hear but it is the truth. Additionally, when I first saw the fight I thought Jacobs was robbed. However, I realized a lot of my reasoning behind that was thinking Jacobs was going to lose, so by him not going down and staying down, I gave him a moral victory that doesn't really translate to a round by round scoring victory. And in order for a challenger to defeat the champ, he has to beat him so by that logic--close rounds should have gone to GGG; I can accept a 6-6 scorecard, with GGG winning on a borderline knockdown.

Even if he beats Canelo this fall, GGG is wise to avoid Jacobs in a rematch. Sometimes a fighter just does not match up well with your style and Danny Jacobs is the guy for Golovkin to avoid. Jacobs is a good but not great fighter and really wonder whether he can beat David Lemiex or Miguel Cotto at a catch weight. By that logic, GGG really needs to put on a show against Canelo to cement his all time great middle weight status.

If GGG gets beat, or knocked out, he will go down as an HBO Hype Job of all time. We find out soon on September 17, 2017. This fight can't come any sooner!