Gennady Golovkin Retains Middleweight Titles With Close Decision Win

Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs lit up Madison Square Garden with an encounter between arguably the two best middleweight boxers in the world.

The fight did not disappoint and Jacobs forced Golovkin to go to the 12th round for the first time in his professional career, but Jacobs could not do enough in the judges’ eyes to take Golovkin’s middleweight belts.

Golovkin defeated Jacobs via unanimous decision (115-112, 115-112, 114-113) to retain his unified middleweight titles. Fightful had Jacobs winning 114-113.

The fight started off almost as if it was a staring contest between the two men, but the action started picking up as the bout progressed.

Golovkin gave Jacobs a ton of respect in the post-fight interview with HBO, saying that Jacobs is his favorite fighter to ever fight against and that the fight going the distance was good for him.

“Daniel, he’s my favorite fighter, he’s very good fighter,” Golovkin said. “This is sport, this is boxing. I’m a boxer, not a killer. I needed this. This was my first test over 12 rounds. I need quality fights!”

Jacobs, who rebounded later in the fight after being knocked down in the fourth round, had thought that he was winning by two rounds heading into the last round, but the judges thought otherwise. Below are the official scorecards of the fight which had Golovkin winning the fight regardless of what happened in the 12th round that isn’t a Golovkin knockdown or knockout.

Up next for Golovkin: the roller coaster that is a potential superfight with Canelo Alvarez, who already has his hands full with a major Cinco De Mayo weekend battle against fellow countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

CompuBox stats had Golovkin with a 231-175 edge over Jacobs in punches landed and was a bit more efficient in the fight, landing 38 percent of his punches while Jacobs landed just 32 percent of his punches.