By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Amid a mostly frustrating, uneventful 2016, boxing fans understandably grew excited when representatives for Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs began negotiating early in the fall.

There initially was hope that Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and Brooklyn’s Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) would fight December 10. Canelo Alvarez fractured his right thumb during his ninth-round knockout of England’s Liam Smith on September 17 in Arlington, Texas, which eliminated him for a potential December 10 fight against an undetermined opponent that would’ve aired live on HBO.

With money suddenly available in its 2016 budget, Peter Nelson, HBO Sports’ executive vice president, was open to the idea of televising Golovkin-Jacobs live on the network. The fight would’ve cost much more in the form of a license fee than HBO typically pays for “World Championship Boxing” main events, but it appeared, at least temporarily, that televising Golovkin-Jacobs live on HBO was a realistic possibility.

Negotiations became complicated, however, and HBO instead aired a split-site tripleheader December 10 from Omaha, Nebraska, and Auckland, New Zealand. The Omaha doubleheader featured Terence Crawford’s eighth-round knockout of overmatched John Molina Jr. The delayed telecast from Auckland featured heavyweight Joseph Parker’s premium-cable debut, a majority-decision victory over Andy Ruiz in a 12-rounder for the then-vacant WBO title.

Handlers for Golovkin and Jacobs came to an agreement a few days after that December 10 telecast and the boxers announced that they had come to terms through their social media accounts December 17. They’ll fight for Golovkin’s IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles in an HBO Pay-Per-View main event March 18 at Madison Square Garden.

Though it would be better for fans if Golovkin-Jacobs was offered live on HBO, rather than pay-per-view, Jacobs believes it’s better to have waited. This way, he was able to get the money he sought, and both he and Golovkin have an ample amount of time to train for the fight and properly promote it.

“It definitely would’ve been rushed,” Jacobs said regarding facing Golovkin on December 10. “My trainer [Andre Rozier] alluded to that early on, and he got a lot of criticism because he said we had needed more time to train. And he said that under the impression that it was gonna take a lot of time to get this fight done.

“So getting the fight done November 15th, and the fight is December whatever, that’s not enough time. So I understand where he was coming from. I’m just happy that the fight is made. Whatever it took, I’m grateful. But it’s finally here. Now it’s time to put up or shut up.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.