Wrap your brain around this:

IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin (who will face Danny Jacobs at Madison Square Garden in New York City, on Saturday) has never been knocked down in a fight, in a match or during sparring.

That is freak-of-nature stuff. Pro since 2006…fighting since he was 8. That includes street brawling, of which there was some.

Want more freakishness?

“Or wobbled,” added Abel Sanchez, who started tutoring him for “GGG’s” August 2010 fight in Panama against Milton Nunez. So Nunez, Nilson Tapia, Kassim Ouma, Lajuan Simon, Mako Fuchigami, Grzegorz Proksa, Gabe Rosado, Nobuhiro Ishida, Matt Macklin, Curtis Stevens, Osumanu Adama, Daniel Geale, Marco Antonio Rubio, Martin Murray, Willie Monroe Jr., David Lemieux, Dominic Wade and Kell Brook didn’t knock the fighting pride of Kazahkstan down. Or wobble him!

How do you explain this situation?

“God and hard work,” Sanchez said.

In that order?

“Definitely in that order,” the trainer stated.

Sanchez touched on Jacobs’ power, and was asked about Jacobs perhaps taking confidence from seeing GGG getting touched by Kell Brook, the IBF 147-pound titlist, in his most recent outing: “I hope that Danny’s reading into what he believes and he comes to fight. Jacobs has power in both hands but, at the same time, when he’s delivering that power, he’s going to be opening himself up. When he does that, that’s when he’s going to get hurt. If he comes to fight, if he makes it a good offensive night, then we’re going to be treated to a short night. Either way, Danny’s got power too.”

Maybe the best GGG’s faced, although we were reminded last week that David Lemieux can turn the crank up to 10, eh?

So, Abel, who has at least made GGG blink twice, laid a near-wobble on him? “I don’t think anyone has caught GGG clean enough, doesn’t mean that it’s not possible. Anyone, if hit right, can be hurt.”

Oh, and for the record, I asked Sanchez, point blank, how he sees, on paper, Jacobs’ power, one to 10, 10 being bomber? Maybe heaviest GGG has met? “I would say Danny 7, Curtis Stevens 8, Lemieux 9,” Sanchez answered.

So, the obvious question about the elephant in the room at MSG on Saturday: Can Danny Jacobs hit GGG “right?” Well, we know DJ has power, right? Peter Quillin can attest…Sergio Mora can attest…But can that power be activated on someone who is in the uppermost echelon of smart boxers, who stay focused and composed and don’t leave themselves open to being hit, especially by something they don’t see. You don’t see that happen to GGG…But what you did see in his last outing is GGG getting stung, a tiny bit stung, by right and left uppercuts, from the Brit Brook.

And counter rights a few times…But not enough. Not enough to drop…or even wobble. But I’m here to tell you, Jacobs is 160 pounds, a different animal than a blown-up Brook. He has faster hands and throws more fluid combos than Brook does. A chopping right from middle distance from Jacobs might be more dangerous to the almost-35-year-old GGG than anything Brook hurled. Thing is, GGG backed on the ropes has better answers than Quillin did on his unfortunate night. And that quick counter right hand that caught Sergio Mora on his heels, unaware, which put him down in the first Jacobs-Mora fight? Do we think that same shot puts GGG on his tuchus? Not likely. And the left hook thrown with precision and power which caught Jacobs and put him on his butt, in the first Mora fight, that same hook from GGG is, I think we can agree, more of a brain-rattler than what Mora possesses (though maybe not. That was thrown with the awareness and intent of a ultra-vet.)

I don’t think it’s a horrid idea for Jacobs to come out in the style he did versus Quillin. Feverish and furious. Try and catch GGG cold, flurry, try to get him with something he doesn’t see. Yes, risky. He will leave himself open, squared up, but don’t most think Jacobs wins via that “puncher’s chance”? Can he outbox GGG and win seven of 12 rounds…which means not getting ground down by the Kazakh pummeler? Hard, though I guess not impossible to fathom. Stranger things have certainly happened.

Anyway, let’s hear from you guys. Talk about that GGG chin, maybe his best and most underappreciated asset. Talk about Jacobs’ best chance to secure a win? Fire away in our comments section!

Michael Woods‘ jaw may be his best and most underappreciated asset – and it has to be, with as much as the guy talks. Between a podcast and chasing down boxing personalities for Periscope, you need one heckuva hinge!

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