Mancini: “Danny Jacobs beats Canelo Alvarez”

By Sean Jones

Boxingnews24.com

Former WBA lightweight champion Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini (29-5, 23 KOs) says IBF middleweight champion Daniel ‘The Miracle Man’ Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) will be WBA/WBC 160 lb unified champion Saul Canelo Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) if he moves back down in weight to take him on. Mancini, 57, says Jacobs’ fighting style is all wrong for the 5’8″ Canelo, and he sees it ending with a loss for the Mexican style.

Mancini says he would prefer to see Canelo come back down to middleweight to face his nemesis Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) to help clear up the controversy surrounding their two fights that took place on HBO PPv at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2017 and 2017. However, Mancini doubts that Canelo will face Golovkin anytime soon, since he thinks that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya wants to age GGG some more before he eventually makes that fight.

Gennady will be turning 37-years-old on April 8. GGG initially wanted to first fight Canelo when he was 32, but he had to wait until he was 35 before the two of them fought for the first time. After that fight, GGG had to wait one more year to face Canelo in the rematch. That wasn’t by design though. Canelo tested positive for the banned performance enhancing substance clenbuterol earlier last year in February 2018, and this resulted in the Nevada State Athletic Commission giving him a six month suspension.

“I thought Golovkin won the fight, and won the second fight,” Mancini said to Fighthub about GGG’s two fights with Canelo. “If it was close, the last round was the one that told, and Gennady dominated the last round. So look, the first fight, he [Golovkin] clearly won, and in the second fight, I thought he was a sure winner also. Most people at ringside thought the same thing. I like Canelo, don’t get me wrong, but now he’s a champion. I would think he would want to come back and put to rest any dispute and make a third one. He should come back right now, real quick. Don’t make it wait, but I don’t see that happening. I don’t see [Oscar] De La Hoya looking to make that fight happen. He’s trying to let Gennady age a little bit more,” Mancini said in disgust.

Mancini is correct about his comment on many boxing fans thinking Golovkin deserved to be the winner in both of his 2 fights against the highly popular Golden Boy star Canelo. Some fans believe that GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler made a monstrous mistake of agreeing to have Golovkin fight Canelo in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he generally always fights nowadays, rather than negotiating to have the contest take place in a state and city that he normally doesn’t fight. Canelo brings in a lot of money to Las Vegas, and some fans believe that the judges in that state would be shooting themselves in the foot if they scored a fight against the Mexican star. Having both Canelo-Golovkin fights take place in the same city of Las Vegas and at the same venue at the T-Mobile Arena could seen as a colossal blunder of all time by GGG’s promoter Loeffler. After the first controversial decision in Las Vegas for the first Canelo-GGG fight, Loeffler should have insisted that the second fight take place in a different state. Putting it back in the same town and the same venue at the T-Mobile was arguably asking for trouble. Now it’s too late. Golovkin has a draw and a loss on his record from his 2 fights with Canelo, and the casual boxing fans aren’t going to be curious enough to go back and re-watch both Canelo vs. Golovkin fights to notice that it appeared that Alvarez lost both of them.

“It’s ridiculous. True fighters do it right away,” Mancini talking about the Canelo vs. Golovkin trilogy fight, which he strongly feels should be made right away rather than letting it wait for GGG to get older. “Ray Leonard and Robert Duran back right away. Those guys did it the first time. Let’s do it again, come right back with it That’s the biggest fight for both guys. Why would you want anybody else? It’s business. Business comes back for the show. The longer he [Canelo] makes him wait, the older he [GGG] gets. ‘Don’t let him [Golovkin] fight [Canelo]. He won’t be as sharp,’” Mancini said about his belief behind the mindset of Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy.

Golden Boy has their reasons for not wanting to put Canelo back in with Triple G for a third fight right now. Canelo, 28, took a lot of heavy shots in the second fight with Golovkin with his decision to come at him rather than fighting defensively for the entire contest like he did in the first fight. Although Canelo put pressure on GGG the majority of the fight, he wore down and was hurt by the Kazakhstan fighter in rounds 10 and 11. Canelo gassed out completely in the championship rounds, but he was still able to pull out a close 12 round majority decision victory, thanks to the way the judges scored it. They gave Canelo a lot of rounds in which he appeared to get the worst of it. The 12th round was one example of a round where Golovkin fought well enough to win it, but the judges gave it to Canelo, who tried a little harder in that round than he had in the three previous ones. The judges scored the fight 115-113, 114-114 and 115-113 for Canelo. Boxing News 24 had Golovkin winning the fight by a 115-113 score. Golovkin appeared to win 7 of the 12 rounds.

“There’s a variety of reasons [why Golden Boy Promotions isn’t making the Canelo vs. GGG 3 fight],” Mancini said. “I think Golovkin should be the next fight made. But we already heard [Matchroom Boxing USA promoter] Eddie Hearn say, ‘GGG is looking for a promoter. He’s considering ESPN. He’s looking for a network, I should say. Eddie Hearn said, ‘If he’s looking for a Canelo fight, he better sign with DAZN,”Mancinci said.

If Golovkin signs with ESPN or Premier Boxing Champions, then there’s a chance that he’ll never get another fight with Canelo. That might not be entirely bad for Golovkin though. You’d have to believe for GGG to get a third fight with Alvarez, he would need to agree to fight him in Las Vegas again. Golden Boy would likely justify their insistence on GGG fighting Canelo in Las Vegas by pointing out that he lost the previous fight, and that he’s arguably not as popular as him. If Golovkin rejects the idea of facing Canelo in Las Vegas, it would given Golden Boy Promotions an excuse to tell the boxing public for why a third fight between them can’t be made. But as far as Golovkin’s career goes, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if he never faces Canelo again. He wouldn’t have to worry about fighting a guy that is seen as unbeatable when fighting in Las Vegas, and he would potentially have a better chance of winning decisions when facing other guys that aren’t as popular as Canelo. It’s possible that Golovkin will never lose again if he doesn’t fight Canelo again. If he does fight him in a third fight, it likely will need to be right back in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile if he wants it.

“Yeah, I think Danny Jacobs beats him [Canelo]. Danny Jacobs is a big strong guy that can fight, and he’s a bad style for Canelo,” Mancini said. “He’s not a Rocky Fielding. Danny Jacobs has got a ramrod jab, and a pretty good right hand. He throws punches in bunches too, and when he does, he throws good punches, power punches. But he’s a big tough guy. That fight should be made. They’re both with Eddie Hearn, so let’s make it happen. I don’t think Canelo’s a bigger puncher than GGG, and GGG dropped him, but he got back up. Let’s make it happen. I believe Eddie Hearn said it [Jacobs] should be Canelo’s next fight,” Mancini said.

Golden Boy has already booked the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for Alvarez’s next fight on May 4. If Jacobs is going to be the guy that faces Canelo on that date, which is still uncertain, then he’s going to need to make it very clear that he’s the better fighter of the two. A knockout might be Jacobs’ only way of avoiding the same fate that GGG suffered in his two fight with Canelo and Erislandy Lara suffered in his match with the Mexican star.

“It’s still the biggest fight, so why wouldn’t you do it again? Mancini said in continuing to talk about the GGG vs. Canelo fight. “It should have been announced already, but De La Hoya wouldn’t do that. He’s not going to do that. He should. He’s the middleweight champion. Canelo is the middleweight champion right now,” Mancini said.

It would be in Canelo’s best interest to fight GGG right now before he gets older. If Golovkin gets too old, then he might lose to one of the other middleweights in the division. Once that happens, Canelo won’t get as much credit if he faces GGG in a trilogy fight and beats him. That’s why the fight needs to be made now between them.

“Let’s unify the titles. It’s another good fight out there for both guys,”Mancini said of Jermall Charlo being a good option for Canelo and GGG to fight. “Gennady is very sound technically, and I think Charlo is a free swinging guy. I think he would do better with Canelo. Gennady is too [good?]. He [Charlo] hits really hard. Gennady is used to fighting big punchers. He trains with bigger guys. Canelo [vs. Charlo] would be interesting. Canelo fighting a full-fledged middleweight that can punch like this kid [Charlo] at this point in his life. This guy is a free swinging guy with a lot of knockouts. That would be a dangerous fight for both guys,” Mancini said about Canelo vs. Charlo.