Jacobs vs. Smith on August 22nd

By Jason Kim: Unbeaten middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs (17-0, 15 KO’s) will be taking a major step up in competition by facing the crazy defensive wizard Ishe Smith (21-3, 9 KO’s) next month on August 22nd, in a 10-round bout at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas. Jacobs, 22, a former amateur star, has quickly moved up the middleweight rankings since turning pro two years ago in 2007 and is currently ranked number #8 in the World Boxing Association middleweight division.

Jacobs has been put in with a lot of soft opponents up until recently and was able to knock most of them out without too many problems, earning him a label as a knockout artist. However, Jacobs doesn’t see himself as a pure puncher and prefers to use his boxing skills and movement to enable him to get his wins.

If a knockout comes, it comes, but Jacobs isn’t looking to go out and destroy his opponents. That’s a good thing, because it won’t be easy for Jacobs to deal with Smith, a former reality television star in The Contender boxing series on NBC.

Smith was eventually was defeated by Sergio Mora by five round split decision in September 2004. Blessed with great boxing ability, good hand speed and an innate ability to avoid punches, Smith’s career hasn’t gone anywhere since he left The Contender.

Smith was defeated by Sechew Powell by a 10-round unanimous decision loss in February 2007, and then defeated by slugger Joel Julio by a 10 round decision loss a year ago in April 2008. In both defeats, Smith struggled in handling the power of Julio and Smith and wasn’t able to compete with their offensive power.

Smith is a good combination puncher, but lacks the huge power that some of the other light middleweights possess. Against Jacobs, a fighter with good power when he loads up, Smith is going to be faced with some serious problems. Jacobs doesn’t stand and trade like the kind of fighters that Smith typically does well against, and will find it hard to use his counter punching ability against him.

Smith is especially good at fighting in close, and with Jacobs it might not be easy. When Jacobs does fight in close, he doesn’t head hunt, instead preferring to land heavy shots to the body. Smith’s specialty is making fighters miss when they attempt to throw head shots, which hen is able to slip by leaning away or to the side.

At a distance, Smith will be dealing mostly with Jacobs’ jabs and will have problems getting out of the way of all of them. Smith might be able to block a portion of them on his gloves, but a lot of them will leak through his defenses and score points.

Jacobs is coming off an 8th round stoppage over George Walton in June 2009. Jacobs hurt Walton in the 8th and took him out with a hail of punches while Walton attempted to cover up on the ropes. The referee stepped in and stopped the one-sided fight at that point.

Jacobs, using movement and an excellent jab, worked Walton over in rounds one through eight with a steady flow of jabs and never really giving him a chance to land any of his own shots. In the 8th round, Jacobs turned up his power a notch and blasted Walton out.

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