Championship Middleweight goes 12 Disputed Rounds

On Saturday March 18, undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin or “GGG” defeated number one contender Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs in a closely disputed boxing match.

The fight was highly anticipated as Jacobs was undefeated in his last twelve contests and overcame cancer before returning to the sport of boxing. Many believed Jacobs had the perfect pedigree to defeat the current middleweight king.

Golovkin has never been knocked down in his entire career and boasts an impressive 36 victories with 33 by way of knockout, no defeats.

Still, it was believed that if anyone could spoil Golovkin’s undefeated streak, it would be Jacobs. Especially after Golovkin’s last fight against Kell Brook.

Criticisms of Golovkin surfaced after the Brook fight, when Golovkin was seemingly exposed when Brook not only landed punches at will but also appeared to rock Golovkin, a feat previously only fathomed.

Brook, unlike Jacobs, is not a true middleweight. Jacobs’ supporters believed if Jacobs could land the same punches Brook did on Golovkin, Jacobs’ power would be too much for Golovkin.   

As the opening round began that Saturday night at Madison Square Garden it was clear that Golovkin was not going to put that to the test. Golovkin appeared to have a more measured approach than usual and showed great respect for Jacobs’ ability to knock out opponents.

In the fourth round however, Golovkin showed his trademark power and knocked down Jacobs with a right hook.

The knockdown was controversial only in that some believed Golovkin had only managed to push Jacobs over.

But it was evident in a different angled replay and by Jacobs’ acceptance of the knockdown, that was not the case.

Still Jacobs was far from done, Jacobs repeatedly set up straight lefts and overhand rights that landed clean on Golovkin’s chin.

Jacobs was also elusive throughout the fight, switching from southpaw to orthodox in order to set up punches as well as slip them.

Jacobs also seemed to outwork Golovkin, landing flurries of punches as well as several punches in the clinch.

The fight was closely contested up until the final seconds with Jacobs and Golovkin both working to assert control and land bombs.

However Golovkin just inched out the victory winning the unanimous decision by the slightest of margins.

With Golovkin still the undefeated middleweight champion, a fight with boxing’s biggest star, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez seems more and more likely. But Alvarez must first get past Julio Cesar Chavez Jr on May 6 of this year.

Roy Jones Jr weighed in stating he would like to see a rematch between Golovkin and Jacobs.

It is unclear as to which will happen first as of now, but both match ups are sure to bring more and more eyes to the sport of boxing to witness the epic contests.