Middleweight Madness “GGG” vs. Jacobs Kicks Off Media Tour in NYC

Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/K2 Promotions

Before starting their eight-week training camps, two of the top middleweights in boxing today, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Brooklyn’s Danny “The Miracle Man” Jacobs kicked off the media tour earlier this week for their anticipated unification fight on March 18th at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The venue for their upcoming bout, The World Famous Madison Square Garden, hosted their kick-off press conference Tuesday afternoon to a packed rows of media eager to hear from the decorated champions.

Undefeated Golovkin (36-0, 32KOs) currently holds four titles in the middleweight division (WBA, WBC, IBF, IBA), something he knows Jacobs is looking to bring back to Brooklyn. Jacobs is the secondary WBA middleweight champion, and the mandatory challenger for Golovkin.

“Today I understand, this is huge for me, for us, for everybody,” Golovkin told the media Tuesday. “I believe Danny is very ready for this fight, because I have four belts, this is a dream for him. It’s very important for us to prove who is #1 in the middleweight division, not for the future but for right now.”

For Golovkin, this is his fifth time fighting at “The Mecca of Boxing” but for Jacobs this is a hometown fight. While he does not underestimate his opponent, he believes he has the keys to hand Golovkin his first defeat.

“For me it’s the perfect opportunity and the perfect time for this to happen,” said Jacobs. “I’m glad it’s finally happening, in my hometown, pretty sure it’s going to be a sold-out crowd.”

“I look forward to seeing everyone and my fists will do the talking inside that ring,” explained Jacobs with a confident grin. “At the end of the day it’s about fight night and as a fighter that’s exactly what we do. Much respect to Team Golovkin but we have an amazing plan and we look forward to executing it.”

For the first time in his professional career, Jacobs will be heading the west-coast for this training camp. In addition to working with long time trainer, Andre Rozier, he has also added Virgil Hunter to this camp. Hunter is famously known as light-heavyweight champion Andre Wards trainer.

Rozier, who has trained Jacobs since he was a teenager, spoke very highly and fondly of Jacobs, and the personal battles he has faced–and won. Jacobs was diagnosed with a life-threatening form of bone cancer, osteosarcoma in 2011. In 2013, doctors stated Jacobs was cancer free.

“We’ve been told that we were running, that we were afraid, that we didn’t want to fight Gennady, I’m here to tell you that is entirely not true. This young man here, Daniel Jacobs, I call him my son, ” said Rozier as he looked back fondly at Jacobs. “He has fought the hardest fight he could ever have, in life. Everything after that is a walk in the park because he fears no man.”’

While both teams were siding with their respective fighter, there was one common outcome they all agreed on. This fight is not going the distance, there will be a KO.

“With 32 victories and 29 knockouts, Danny’s one of the biggest punches in the middleweight division and with Gennady’s knockouts I don’t see this fight going the distance,” said Keith Connelly of Team Jacobs. “It’s a can’t miss fight and I think it’s the biggest fight of the year.”

Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez agreed. ““Once the fight was ordered Danny started talking like a champion should. These two fighters enter the ring with better than a 90% KO ratio, it’s fair to say that somebody is going out.”

Also announced at the Tuesday press conference was the co-main event featuring undefeated WBC super-flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and #2 ranked WBC challenger Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

Tickets are currently on sale with prices ranging from $100-$1,000 through Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com and the Garden box office. The championship event will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT on Saturday, March 18th.