Jacobs’ weight for GGG fight pleases Algieri

boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Former world champion Chris Algieri is working with Daniel Jacobs as his nutritionist to help him get ready for his fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin next month on March 18. Jacobs surprised a lot of people recently in weighing in at 174.8 pounds for the World Boxing Council’s 30-day weight check this month on February 18.

The upper limit for the weigh-in was 176 lbs. and Jacobs barely made it. In contrast, Golovkin weighed in at a slim 165.1 lbs., which is only 5.1 pounds away from the 160lb limit for their fight on March 18.

Instead of being upset with Jacobs being so heavy for the fight, Algieri sees it as a good thing, as believes this to mean that he won’t be dehydrated for the fight. Jacobs still has to make the 160lb limit though, and Algieri might have a different view on the subject when he starts melting down to get to 160.

Jacobs is a big fighter for the middleweight division. He probably should be fighting at super middleweight (168) rather than at middleweight, but there are fewer big fights that can be made in that division. Further, if Jacobs moves up to 168, he won’t have a weight advantage over his opponents like he can have from time to time at middleweight.

One fact that many boxing fans might not know is 24 of Jacobs’ 33 fights as a pro has been in the super middleweight division with him weighing over the 160lb limit. Jacobs has only fought 9 fights at middleweight. It’s got to be difficult for Jacobs to make the weight for the 160lb division. The real question is will Jacobs be weight drained after he makes weight for the Golovkin fight. Usually when fighters are weight drained, they’re still able to fight effectively for the first 4 to 6 rounds. It’s not until the second half of their fights that they start to wear down. I don’t know if Jacobs will even make it to the second half of the fight against Golovkin.

“I’m actually very pleased with where his weight is at this point,” Algieri said via ringtv.com. “I did hear some people were talking about, ‘Oh, he’s so heavy.’ Honestly, if you noticed the pictures from the weigh-in — we weighed in at his apartment. It wasn’t like he had just finished a workout and was at all depleted when he stepped on the scale. We had finished our workout and had eaten twice before that. He was hydrated.”

Being bigger might not help Jacobs against Golovkin, because in order to use that size, he’ll need to put himself in harm’s way. We’ve already seen how Jacobs can be hurt in his fights against Sergio Mora and Dmitri Pirog in the past. If Jacobs tries to utilize his 175 to 180 lbs. of weight against Golovkin on March 18, he could run into something that he can’t handle. In other words, Golovkin could nail Jacobs with a big left hook to the head like he did against Dominic Wade and Willie Monroe Jr. and wind up getting knocked out. I rate Jacobs’ punching power and talent as being better than those two fighters, but not his chin.

I think Jacob’ ability to handle shots to the head is better than Wade and Monroe Jr. Therefore, it’s vitally important that Jacobs gets hit as less as possible by Golovkin in order to avoid getting knocked out in the early rounds of the fight.

For Jacobs to avoid getting hit by GGG, he’s going to need to move around the ring frequently and stay light on his feet. That’s not going to be easy for Jacobs to do if he’s weighing close to 180 lbs. Jacobs is too heavy for him to move for any length of time around the ring against Golovkin. Jacobs needs to fully concentrate on moving against Golovkin, but I’m not sure that his weight will allow for that. Jacobs isn’t fast on his feet anyway. He’s not in the same class as Kell Brook, the last fighter that Golovkin fought.

Jacobs isn’t as fast as Brook, and he also not as skilled defensively. Brook has much better defensive skills than Jacobs, and arguably a far better chin. That means it’s important that Jacobs be light for this fight against Golovkin rather than coming into it nearly 180lbs and not being able to move. Pirog had no problems cutting off the ring and knocking Jacobs out in the 5th round in their fight in 2010. This is when Jacobs was younger and more mobile. He’s now about 30, and not as light on his feet like he was back then. It’s bad news for Jacobs anyway you want to look at it.

“Athletes dehydrate themselves too early. I have no desire to have my athlete be dehydrated for any period of time in training camp,” said Algieri. “To have him step on a scale to reach a number that will please the fans is not something I really care about.”

Having Jacobs at a number that the boxing fans see as agreeable to them isn’t just important to the fans. It’s also important for Jacobs. He might be able to use his size to beat normal middleweights like the ones he’s been facing during his career, but Golovkin is a different story. He’s the best in the division. Jacobs isn’t going to be able to use his 174.8lbs to take advantage of Golovkin like he could if he were facing Sergio Mora for a third time or Peter Quillin.

The weight could wind up being a heavy anchor for Jacobs when he gets inside the ring, especially if he’s still feeling the after effects of rehydrating 15 pounds of water weight. That’s a lot of weight to shift in 24 hours. Jacobs can probably do that without any problems if he were facing one of the mediocre middleweights that he’s been padding his resume with since his loss to Pirog in 2010, but Golovkin is a much different story. He’s the best and he’ll take Jacobs a part if he’s dragging and looking lethargic on March 18.

Algieri looked too heavy in his last three fights at welterweight against Errol Spence Jr., Erick Bone and Amir Khan. I think Algieri made a mistake in those fights coming in heavy and foolishly choosing to slug rather than staying light and using his speed to try and out-box those fighters. Algieri attempted to change his entire game around by going from a boxer to a slugger in his last three fights, and the results saw him lose 2 out of those 3 fights. The only reason Algieri beat Bone is because he was facing a non-top tier guys.

“He’s a big puncher either way so we want him to be snappy and be able to move on his feet,” said Algieri about Jacobs in the Golovkin fight. “We want him to stay really active with his mind. That’s where nutrition and conditioning really come into play.”

Jacobs is not going to be snappy if he’s close to 180lbs on the night he faces Golovkin. That’s the kind of weight that Jacobs would use if he were to attempt to score a 1st round knockout of Golovkin. I don’t think Jacobs will be able to just unload on Golovkin with a flurry of shots like he did with Quillin.

Jacobs was able to get away with fighting like that because Quillin was so badly hurt. If Jacobs fights like that against Golovkin, he could get knocked out in the 1st round. Even if Jacobs hurts Golovkin, if he gets sloppy and starts throwing shots without caution, he could wind up getting knocked out.