We’re unifying titles tonight thanks to HBO Pay-Per-View boxing when Gennady “Triple-G” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) takes on Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) in a fight no one thinks is going the distance at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
In the undercard, once again Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-0, 38 KOs) puts his WBC World Super Flyweight belt on the line against Wisaksil Wangek (41-4, 38 KOs).
As always, scroll on down for the live blog. Keep reading for the press release from HBO PPV.
Ahead of Saturday night’s fight between Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs at Madison Square Garden on HBO pay-per-view (9 PM ET/6 PM PT), HBO Boxing Insiders offer up their predictions. (Fans of Danny Jacobs may want to look away.)
Hamilton Nolan: Gennady KO
I think Golovkin will knock Danny Jacobs out, mid to late rounds if I had to guess. Jacobs is probably the best fight Golovkin could get right now at 160 pounds, and he’s a serious puncher, so he has an outside chance if he can hurt Golovkin early. But we’ve never seen Golovkin hurt, so it’s not likely. I think Golovkin will hunt him down and kill him, the same as he will anyone else in that division.
Nat Gottlieb: Golovkin TKO 8
He’s an indestructible force and has faced better competition than Jacobs has. Jacobs is a nice story, but all stories have an ending.
Kieran Mulvaney: GGG TKO 7
In many respects, Jacobs has all the elements you would want in a fighter going up against Golovkin: He’s tall and strong, with a good jab and power. And make no mistake: He’s a real challenge for Golovkin, quite possibly the biggest the Kazakh has yet faced. The problem for Jacobs is that GGG knows it; there is a feeling of focus and intensity around Team Golovkin that hasn’t always been there. And everything Jacobs can do — be it box or brawl — Golovkin can do better. Jacobs will crack Golovkin, he’ll hurt him, he’ll have his moments, but slowly but surely, GGG will cut off the ring, break Jacobs down and finish him off sometime around the seventh round.
Diego Morilla: GGG KO 5
Six years have passed since a scrawny and pretty much untested Russian fighter named Dmitry Pirog simply destroyed Jacobs with frightening ease. And even though I can easily assume that Jacobs has improved both mentally and physically after enduring his toughest fight outside of the ring, I also have no problem assuming that a human wrecking ball like GGG will have no problem scoring a very similar and equally devastating stoppage win against Jacobs, who has shown courage and grit in his miraculous recovery as a fighter, but who has not nearly enough of either of those virtues to stand in front of Golovkin with any kind of chance of victory.
Gordon Marino: GGG KO 4
Jacobs is an explosive puncher and you can be sure that he will try to attack up the middle. But Gennady has the iron whiskers to go with his hands of stone. More importantly, one of GGG’s greatest virtues is that he punches when his opponents are punching. That will be the undoing of the noble and talented and Mr. Jacobs.
The fights are on HBO PPV at 9 p.m. EST. Watch them with me if you can. If not, follow along here and I’ll tell you what happens.
