Gennady Golovkin looking to silence his critics with win over Daniel Jacobs

Gennady Golovkin has a record of 36-0 with 23 consecutive wins by knockout, and has been a champion for over six years. Yet and still, not all boxing fans are sold.

Some boxing fans are still on the fence on whether Gennady Golovkin should be considered a top five pound for pound fighter.

The most recognizable wins of Golovkin’s career to this point have been an eighth-round TKO victory over IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux, and a fifth-round TKO victory over Kell Brook who moved up from welterweight to challenge him.

While it’s true that he has never beaten a fighter that was in the discussion as a top 10 fighter pound for pound, it’s no fault of his own.

Golovkin tried to lure then-WBC and lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez into a fight, but Martinez declined saying GGG wasn’t a big enough name.

Miguel Cotto would eventually unseat Martinez, then he too declined to fight Golovkin because he stated GGG was too big. Seventeen months later Cotto was beaten by Canelo Alvarez, who also declined a fight with GGG. Although many feel it was Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya who did not want to sign the fight, Alvarez was subsequently stripped of the WBC title and it was given to GGG.

After years of wanting a fight that would legitimize him to everyone as the middleweight king, he now has that opportunity as he takes on Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) on March 18^th at Madison Square Garden.

This is by far the toughest fight of GGG’s career as people are giving Jacobs more than a punchers chance to win.

Jacobs is on a 12 fight winning streak and his most impressive victory came on December 5, in 2015, when he knocked Peter Quillin out in the first round at the Barclays Center. Jacobs is also a cancer survivor which could play an intangible role in this fight because unlike most of GGG opponents, Jacobs will not fear him.

Both men can end the fight with one punch, so Golovkin will have to fight smart if he’s going to win. If he can defeat Jacobs, especially if it’s by knockout, then his critics will have no either choice but to give him the credit he deserves.