By Jeff Aranow: Plans are underway for WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) to defend his WBA title on May 21 against former WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-3, 24 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Jacobs-Lee will be scheduled on the same night as Deontay Wilder’s defense of his WBC heavyweight title against Alexander Povetkin. It’s unclear whether this could be a double-header for Showtime, but that sounds like a likely plan.
Jacobs, 29, scored an impressive 1st round knockout win over former WBO 160lb champion Peter Quillin last December in their “Battle of Brooklyn” fight in New York. Jacobs was able to get a quick knockout after hurting Quillin with a right hand to the head, and then flurrying on him until the referee stopped the contest.
“Although Wilder-Povetkin will be in Russia, at Barclays Center still plans #boxing on 5/21.
I’m told Daniel Jacobs – Andy Lee Boxing could headline,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter.
Lee, 31, lost his WBO middleweight title last December in a 12 round majority decision loss to #1 WBO Billy Joe Saunders in a close fight.
Lee got behind early in the bout after getting knocked down twice in the 3rd. Lee was never able to climb all the way back from that early deficit despite the fact that he did come back strong in the second half of the contest to make it very close. Lee remains ranked hight at #6 by the World Boxing Organization despite the loss to Saunders.
The southpaw Lee is a dangerous puncher when he’s fighting aggressively, and he could be a very difficult test for Jacobs. We’ve seen Jacobs have problems with big punchers in the past in his 5th round knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog six years ago in 2010. Jacobs has since won his last 11 fights in a row.
However, Jacobs didn’t start fighting quality opposition again until recently when he defeated Jarrod Fletcher by a 5th round knockout in September 2014 to capture the vacant WBA World middleweight title. Jacobs has since defended his WBA title three times in beating Caleb Truax, Sergio Mora and Peter Quillin, all by knockout victories.
Chris Eubank Jr. recently defeated Gary O’Sullivan to become Jacobs’ WBA mandatory challenger, but instead of taking that fight, Eubank Jr. has opted instead to fight British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell later this month on March 26th for his British title.
Jacobs is managed by Al Haymon.
It was thought that Haymon would have Jacobs face Quillin in a rematch, as he also manages Quillin. But it looks like he’s instead going to have them travel in separate lanes for a while. It’s a wise move by Haymon, because if Quillin loses to Jacobs again, his career could be about finished. Before his loss to Jacobs, Quillin was held to a draw by Andy Lee.
Lee would like a rematch with Saunders to try and recapture his WBO title. Saunders and his management have decided to take an easy voluntary defense against #11 WBO Max Bursak on April 30 at the Copper Box Arena in London, UK. If Saunders wins that fight, then the idea is for him to face IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in a unification fight. If Lee wants a fight against Saunders, then he might need to wait until he gets down with both of his planned fights. By then, Saunders probably won’t have his WBO title any longer.
Lee had been doing pretty good with his career up until his loss to Saunders. He had scored a stoppage against Matt Korobov and John Jackson in fights that he was struggling in. Lee also had came on strong in his fight against Quillin in the second half to get a 12 round draw last year in April 2015. This came after Lee had been knocked down twice in the early rounds in getting put down in the 1st and 3rd. Things looked pretty bleak for Lee until he came alive in the last six rounds and had Quillin down in the 7th. It was a great comeback by Lee. However, the fight showed how Lee can be vulnerable, especially in the early rounds. Lee seems to be a late starter at this stage of his career, and this puts him in a position where he constantly needs to rall y in order to get victories.
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