Does Daniel Jacobs Have the Talent to Be a Champion?
May 20th, 2009
By Jason Kim: after watching how middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs (16-0, 14 KOs) struggled against 5’7” Michael Walker (19-2, 12 KOs) on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton bout on May 2nd at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, I’m starting to have my doubts whether the 22-year-old Jacobs has the talent to make it to the next level in the middleweight division.
Although Jacobs ended up winning by the lopsided judges’ scores of 80-72, 80-72 and 80-72 across the board, Jacobs didn’t look good under the heavy pressure that was being put on him by Walker. With a huge six inch height advantage over Walker, it would seem logical that Jacobs would be able to dominate the fight with his longer reach, and in fact he did for the most part.
However, Walker was able to hit Jacobs often in the fight with hooks and body shots, and found it easy to rough Jacobs up on the inside. When Walker was able to get Jacobs against the ropes, Michael found a lot of success landing hard body shots as Jacobs covered up. Before this fight, Jacobs had been put in with opponents that were easily bowled over with the shots from Jacobs that didn’t seem all that hard from the naked eye.
Teddy Atlas, an analyst for ESPN, was one of the first that noticed that Jacobs wasn’t all that hard of a puncher and pointed out that Jacob’s impressive knockout record might be a product of the soft competition that he had been put in with. However, up until the Walker fight there had been no evidence to support Atlas’ views on Jacobs.
But in the Walker fight it was pretty clear that Jacobs was the opposite of a knockout puncher, someone more like Jeff Lacy after he injured his left shoulder. The lack of power for Jacobs is going to be a problem eventually for him, because he won’t be able to stay in the middleweight division for long as he continues to grow.
Right now, I think Jacobs is good enough to beat Felix Sturm, the World Boxing Association middleweight champion, and perhaps WBO/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. But I don’t see Jacobs as being in the class of IBF title holder Arthur Abraham right now nor do I see him being better than him five years from now.
Abraham has too many different skills and too much power for a fighter like Jacobs, who looked very uncomfortable with the light pressure that Walker was putting on him in their May 2nd fight. Then good news is that Abraham will likely be moving up in weight soon to the super middleweight division, possibly next year after Abraham fights Pavlik.
In the absence of Abraham, Jacobs could probably pick up one of the middleweight titles and hold onto it for a while. He has a couple of rising prospects like himself in Gennady Golovkin, Hassan N’Dam and Peter Quillen that could be a problem for Jacobs in the future. Each of them have good boxing skills, extraordinary talent and power along the same lines as Jacobs.
If those fighters weren’t bad enough, there’s also undefeated Russian middleweight prospect Matt Korobov looming on the horizon who appears to be too strong for Jacobs, and would likely be a step too far for Jacobs. It’s possible that Jacobs can avoid fighting Korobov for awhile but eventually the pressure will be on Daniel to fight him. At this point, I suspect that Korobov would be too strong for Jacobs and would have him literally running for his life.
Before long Jacobs is going to outgrow the middleweight division and will be forced to move up to super middleweight in the future. When that time comes, I don’t see Jacobs as being able to win a championship at that weight class.
Champions Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler would be too skilled for Jacobs to deal with, and young prospects Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell appear to be much quicker and more versatile fighters than Jacobs with better defensive skills.
Ward and Dirrell are the future of the super middleweight division. Jacobs can’t wait them out because both are young and will be fighting for a long time to come in the super middleweight division. There’s also Librado Andrade, a classic pressure fighter, who has an excellent chin, great stamina and good power.
Jacobs wouldn’t be able to make a dent on Andrade’s chin and would have to run the entire fight in order to avoid his big shots. Unlike Walker, Andrade will catch up to Jacobs often and hammer Jacobs with heavy shots. If Jacobs had some head movement or was able to move his torso to avoid shots he might be able to do reasonably well against Andrade.
However, Jacobs appears very easy to hit at this point and uses his legs to avoid getting hit rather than having good defensive skills while standing in front of his opponents.
Tags: 8 Responses to “Does Daniel Jacobs Have the Talent to Be a Champion?”
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jury is still out
interesting article. i dont think Jacobs lacks power, but he was certainly frustrated by Walker’s style. that said, it wasnt until the 8th round of this fight that he actually stood toe to toe with Walker and delivered some hard blows that backed him off. he seems to have the ability to deliver hard shots, but i wonder if his conditioning allows to deliver them continuously. his speed is certainly impressive, Walker was unbothered by it though – kept a tight guard and kept coming forward landing a few shots here and there. if there is anything to this article to consider, it’s the notion GoldenBoy has put out that this kid has heavyweight power. i don’t think so – but enough to handle the best in the middleweight division still.
By reading this idiotic garbage, i would think that you are some random guy that never strapped on a boxing glove in your entire life but you still have the balls to say things or judge a fighter off of one fight. If you have never fought, than you shouldn’t be allowed to make such comments because you don’t know what it’s like to be a professional fighter. Although, I think Jacobs fought a good fight, it wasn’t great OR not up to his potential. We are talking about a kid that has been a pro for only 18 months and also fought a week earlier! Do you understand or know the mental stress of fighting that close together…OF COURSE NOT, but i can guarentee that played a part. People like you will make these comments now, but be the first one to write an article about Danny when he wins the title saying that “You knew he was going to be a star”, or “You saw his talent the whole time”…I wouldn’t have even commented if you made a small notion or comment, but all this wak ass article is, is a bunch of hate on the kid…grow up!
Jacobs is a natural boxer-who is very well balanced. Hes the best middle/super middle weight prospect imo. He doesnt rely on just power to win.
Jacobs also took Walkers pressure well(won every round). Most of Walkers connects were allowed by Jacobs. Jacobs fought an extremely smart fight.
And Arthur Abraham having to many skills..come on. Abraham is as tough as they come..but too many skills..im not going to compair the two because jacobs is only 18 months in, but I think Jacobs is a better all around boxer than Abraham.
Walker has pretty good defense and is kinda tough..Walker trained to fight slugger kirkland..
Jacobs fought 8 days earlier..Jacobs outboxed Walker..case closed.
On paper his record shows possible signs of a world champion but saying that Andy Lee was 15 wins with 12 ko’s and he got stopped by Brian Vera
i cant believe what i just read. i thought jacobs was impressive, he was fast, slick and very elusive..but just coz he had one bad fight hes not going to be good? He is still young and learning the trade, every boxer no matter how great has had to have a hard fight its good for them. Its quite impressive that even though he had a hard fight he came through with a wide decision. Also i think credit has to be given to walker who gave it a go.. this was just a learning curve for jacobs and the best is still to come im sure of it….what an idiot this writer is
I think his power alone could help towards a belt being placed around his waist.
But now hes beginnin to fight higher standard boxers his boxing skills are looking more rounded.
I like Jacobs alot hes still got plenty to learn but hes on the right path so far.
This is bollocks. Walker pressured him and Jacobs was just too slick for him. Walker never look like he would be in control because Jacobs was too quick, too slick. Also, Jacobs took the fight at short notice and look like he wanted to box rather than KO. He let walker come on to him and used his skills. I for one was impressed. Sure he cud have stepped up a gear, but he did more than enough to claim a easy win.