The Kazakhstan King, Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (37-0,33 KO's) defended his WBC, IBF, WBA, and IBO middleweight belts and went on to win by unanimous decision against Daniel Jacobs (32-2, 29 KO's).
Jacobs, who decided not to reveal his weight before the fight according to the IBF's second-day weigh in Saturday morning, possibly came into the ring as much as 20 pounds above the 160 limit, as opposed to GGG who weighed 169 that same morning. Boxing experts differ on whether the extra weight would have made him slower or sluggish, but that was not the case. He was able to manuever his way around the ring to avoid the potential KO from Gennady, but the extra weight allowed him to withstand the bigger punches landed by GGG. Despite Jacobs being the taller, younger opponent at 30 years of age, compared to the 34 year old Golovkin, and weight advantage, GGG still was the aggressor throughout the fight.
Jacobs, who is four years younger than Golovkin came in as the underdog but he certainly did not look like it. Imagine if Golovkin was four years younger than Jacobs.
In the second round, after feeling the power and aggressive approach Glolovkin was putting on him, Jacobs switched to southpaw but it was not effective.
Glolovkin continued to be the aggressor in the early rounds and as expected, in the fourth round he landed two big right hands that send Jacobs to the canvas. Although the big punches landed, Jacobs didn't appear to be hurt as he took the count. Jacobs recovered well and Golovkin took his time stalking his foe, but not enough time was left in the round for Golovkin to finish him.
In the fifth round, Golovkin began to land body shots and then landed a good right hand that wobbled Jacobs but he held his own.
In the early part of the fight, you could hear the excited New York crowd chanting "Triple G," "Triple G," as he continued to force the fight against Jacobs.
In the sixth and seventh round, Jacobs was getting confident and he landed some of the best punches and combinations in these rounds, but Golovkin continued using his jab, which he used throughout the first six rounds in attempts to set up his power punches.
All the judge's cards had Golovkin winning the eighth and ninth rounds. And that was because Golovkin was landing his jab and snapping Jacob' head back as he landed the punches. Golovkin continued with the jab in the ninth which had Jacobs on the defense, but Jacobs landed a good combination as well. It was in the ninth round where Golovkin landed a good uppercut that straightened Jacobs up as he retreated for a moment, clearly stunned by the punch. Golovkin then followed up with another uppercut and finished it with a hard right hook to the head of the tough Jacobs.
Although Jacobs was clearly behind on the judge's cards at this point, the fight looked very close, and that was because Jacobs was landing some clean punches which made it look as if he was winning the fight.
In the tenth and eleventh rounds, Jacobs landed a clean uppercut and a nice right hand, although Golovkin continued to push the fight. In the eleventh, it continued to be a close fight, but Jacobs landed a good left hand and then followed it with a right hook at the end of the round.
Going into the final round, it appeared that whoever dominated or won the twelfth round would be the winner, although Golovkin was ahead on two of the judge' cards by two points and four points by the other judge through the eleventh round.
In the last round, with Jacobs right eye puffed and his left almost closed, Golovkin attempted to get in close, but when he did, Jacobs would clinch and the referee had to step in to break them up. Although they both were able to land punches, Golovkin was the busier fighter and he appeared to have won the final round. Because of this round, and the earlier knockdown and landing the most punches in the fight, Golovkin went on to win by unanimous decision, 114-113, 115-112, 115-112.
Despite Golovkin's 23-Fight knockout record ending, and the first time that he has ever had to go twelve rounds, Golovkin did continue with his undefeated record of thirty seven fights. He is now only two fights away from breaking Bernard Hopkins record of twenty middleweight defenses.
As for the future, he is hoping to unify all the middleweight belts by fighting Billy Joe Saunders (24-0,12 KO's) from England for the WBO middleweight belt. In addition to that, he is also waiting for the result of the Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1, 34 KO's) fight against Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (50-2, 32 KO's) fight set for May 6, 2017 at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas. Assuming that Alvarez will win, this may set up one of the biggest fights in boxing for these two superstar middleweights.
