By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Daniel Jacobs is fully focused on what figures to be a very difficult fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko on Saturday night.

Jacobs didn’t hesitate when the conversation turned toward Jermall Charlo, however, to make it clear he doesn’t think the WBC’s interim middleweight champion will fight him anytime soon.

If Jacobs defeats Derevyanchenko and Charlo beats Willie Monroe Jr. on December 22, they theoretically could meet in what would be an intriguing middleweight championship match in 2019.

A victory over Derevyanchenko also could leave Jacobs in prime position to challenge Canelo Alvarez on May 4. Even if that lucrative, preferable fight didn’t materialize for Jacobs, he can’t see Charlo agreeing to fight him.

“I don’t think he would take it because you’ve gotta understand, the proof is in the pudding,” Jacobs told BoxingScene.com before a press conference Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. “He called me out, or he said a couple things about me. And then once I retaliated, you heard no more. When’s the last time you heard Jermall Charlo say something about Daniel Jacobs. Whereas before I tamed the lion, there was a whole bunch of bark in the jungle. Now the jungle is deserted, with nothing but birds, nothing but giraffes and mermaids. And mermaids don’t even live in the jungle.”

Jacobs jokingly referred to “Lions Only,” the mantra of Jermall Charlo and his twin brother, Jermell Charlo, the WBC super welterweight champion. Brooklyn’s Jacobs also alluded to confronting Jermall Charlo in a Barclays Center hallway after a March 3 card to discuss Charlo’s comments about him (https://www.boxingscene.com/jermall-charlo-daniel-jacobs-confronting-me-just-an-act--125899).

“You never heard anything after that, especially not a call-out,” Jacobs said. “In fact, what you heard was him say, ‘Well, the Jacobs fight will come. It’s not gonna come now. It’s gonna come in the future. I’m not saying how far, but once my career is up, that fight is gonna happen.’ You can’t go from A to B like that, so that’s that.”

Houston’s Jermall Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) is heavily favored to beat Monroe (23-3, 6 KOs), of Rochester, New York, in a fight FOX will televise from Barclays Center in Brooklyn on December 22. Jermell Charlo (31-0, 15 KOs) is set to battle Detroit’s Tony Harrison (27-2, 21 KOs) on that same card.

A press conference is scheduled for Thursday at Barclays Center to officially announce FOX’s December 22 show.

Monroe can box, but he isn’t a big puncher and has been stopped by Gennady Golovkin and out-boxed by Billy Joe Saunders in his two middleweight title fights. Jacobs predicted Jermall Charlo will win, but he also expected the former IBF junior middleweight champion to box a more imposing opponent in his next fight.

“He’s considering himself one of the best or one of the most feared in the division,” Jacobs said. “And, you know, take nothing away from Willie Monroe, but you’ve gotta understand that if you’re gonna claim this title, you’ve gotta fight somebody at least that the fans can say is a 50-50 fight. And I don’t know if the fans will say that this is a 50-50 fight. I believe that he’ll still have trouble with Willie Monroe, because his feet aren’t that educated, in my opinion. But his power is really good and he’s vicious when it comes to being inside that ring, so he comes forward.

“But if Willie Monroe can truly be himself and do the things that he wants to do and moves and gets that good feel, get that jab popping back and forth, I think it’ll be a competitive fight. If [Monroe] can protect himself and protect that chin, I think it’ll be an interesting fight and the fans will still be able to gauge where Jermall Charlo is in the middleweight division. So it’s not a real bad fight for me, but it’s a fight where if you’re gonna claim that title [as the best or most avoided], you’re gonna be like, ‘Come on, now.’ ”

Jacobs, meanwhile, is prepared for what seemingly will be the toughest of his three fights since narrowly losing a unanimous decision to Golovkin in March 2017 at Madison Square Garden. Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko doesn’t have much professional experience (12-0, 10 KOs), but he won 390 amateur fights, competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and, like Jacobs and Jermall Charlo, is commonly considered one of the top six middleweights in boxing.

Derevyanchenko and Jacobs have sparred more than 300 rounds against each other, thus Jacobs is well aware of just how difficult their fight will be when they square off for the vacant IBF middleweight title.

“The proof has been in the pudding,” Jacobs said. “If you scratch out Sergio Mora, this will be my fifth undefeated fighter that I’m fighting in a row. And that speaks volumes because all of the guys that I’ve fought were good, undefeated guys, with good skills. Hey, I’m claiming to be the best. In order to do that, you’ve gotta fight the best.

“You can’t fight – and there’s no disrespect to any fighter out there – but you can’t fight guys who’ve been knocked out before. You can’t fight guys who have a losing record and then claim to be the No. 1 guy in the division or saying you’re avoided and all – no! You’ve gotta show and tell.”

Jacobs, 31, and Derevyanchenko, 32, will fight for the unclaimed middleweight title the IBF stripped from Golovkin on June 6.

The top-ranked Derevyanchenko was the mandatory challenger for Golovkin’s title. The IBF ordered a Derevyanchenko-Jacobs bout once it took its 160-pound championship from Golovkin for failing to adhere to the stipulations of the exception it granted him to make a voluntary defense against Vanes Martirosyan on May 5, rather than making a mandatory defense versus Derevyanchenko.

HBO will air Jacobs-Derevyanchenko as the main event of a “World Championship Boxing” tripleheader. The telecast is scheduled to start Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

The three-bout broadcast also will include a 12-round, 130-pound championship match that’ll pit Puerto Rico’s Alberto Machado (20-0, 16 KOs), the WBA world super featherweight champion, against Cleveland’s Yuandale Evans (20-1, 14 KOs). In the opener of HBO’s show, New York’s Heather Hardy (21-0, 4 KOs, 1 NC) will oppose Providence’s Shelly Vincent (23-1, 1 KO) in a 10-round rematch for the vacant WBO women’s featherweight title.

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