Gennady Golovkin returns to the ring Saturday night for the first time since 2016 when he fights Daniel Jacobs in a title unification bout with the IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles on the line from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The co-main event features Roman ?Chocolatito? Gonzalez defending WBC junior bantamweight title against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) hasn?t fought since he scored a fifth-round knockout over welterweight champion Kell Brook in September. The knockout ran Golovkin?s streak to 23 over an eight-year span.
Jacobs (32-1, 23 KOs) last competed in September when he defeated Sergio Mora by seventh-round TKO. The Brooklyn native has won 12 consecutive fights since he suffered his only loss to Dmitry Pirog in July 2010.
Gonzalez (46-0, 38 KOs), who many in boxing feel is the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, looks to score his first stoppage since his ninth-round TKO win over Brian Viloria in Oct. 2015. Interestingly enough, it was an event him and Golovkin fought at MSG.
Sor Rungvisai (34-4-1) comes into the biggest fight of his career on a tear, winning seven consecutive fights.
There are plenty of questions heading into Saturday night?s card, but these are the four biggest ones: Can ?GGG? stay focused on Jacobs and not look ahead to a possible showdown against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez?
In the lead-up to Saturday?s fight, Golovkin has been asked plenty of questions in regards to Alvarez. He has maintained that he is focused on Jacobs, but at times, he has shown frustration that a fight with Alvarez hasn?t been signed.
Golovkin needs to remember what’s in front of him. He stated in the build-up that when he fought Brook it wasn?t interesting to him, and that he had his mind on other things, trying to make different fights like the one with Alvarez.
Jacobs is the number two middleweight in the world and cannot be overlooked. This isn?t a fighter who’s moving up two weight classes like Brook did. A slight loss of focus by Golovkin on Saturday night, and the Alvarez fight is an afterthought.
