By Allan Fox: Undefeated Luis Arias (18-0, 9 KOs) doesn’t see himself as the sacrificial lamb being brought in for middleweight contender Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) to slaughter on November 11th in their fight on HBO World Boxing at the Nassau Colisseum in Uniondale, New York.
(Photo credit: Matchroom Boxing/Ed Mulholland)
Arias, 27, plans on shocking the world by knocking out Jacobs to make a name for himself in this fight.
Arias is coming into the Jacobs fight with a career-best 5th round knockout win over Arif Magomedov on June 17. This was Arias’ best win by far in his 5-year pro career. The fight was a mismatch. Arias dominated Magomedov in hitting him with beautiful combinations to the head and body. Arias fought like a world champion in that fight.
The way that Arias looked, you have to consider him as being even with Jacobs in their fight on November 11. Jacobs hasn’t shown the kind of boxing skills that Arias displayed against Magomedev. Arias has some many different facets to his game. He could do it all; slug, move, and defend.
Arias saw Jacobs’ recent fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on March 18, and he felt that he was doing a lot of running at times. Arias feels that Jacobs was given a ton of credit by HBO and his new promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport for just making it the full 12 rounds.
Jacobs lost the fight to Golovkin because he moved too much when he should have been fighting. It wasn’t just in the first 6 rounds that Jacobs was moving. He did it in the last 6 rounds as well. Even in the championship rounds, Jacobs was moving instead of attacking. Jacobs looked scared at times, and not sure of himself.
”Eddie Hearn and HBO is giving you way too much credit for just making it to the 12th round,” said Arias about Jacobs. ”I’ve been fighting my whole life, since I’ve been 8-years old. I know the difference between boxing and running, and there were a lot of points in that fight where I didn’t know if you were boxing or running,” said Arias.
Jacobs will need to stand and fight Arias for him to become the star in the U.S that HBO and Hearn hope him to be. Jacobs didn’t fight like a star against Golovkin. That was a finesse/spoiling approach to the fight by Jacobs. It wasn’t a people-pleasing type of fight from the “Miracle Man” Jacobs. It was more like Jacobs was following the blueprint that Kell Brook had created in his fight with GGG. Brook would land 2 or 3 shots on Golovkin, and then get on his bike and look to keep from getting hit.
When Brook would stop, he would try and land 2 or 3 more shots before dashing off again. This is what Jacobs did against Golovkin. It’s also what Saul Canelo Alvarez did. It’s not exciting to watch. Boxing fans like to see fighters that stand and fight. When they spoil like Jacobs, Brook and Canelo were doing against Golovkin, it’s dull and not as exciting as it could be.
Canelo doesn’t need to worry about losing fans by him running. He’s got a large built in fan base in the U.S that won’t abandon him no matter how much moving he does. Brook has a lot of British boxing fans that will back him to the end. Jacobs is different. He doesn’t have a large dedicated fan base yet. He needs to fight in an exciting manner and beat the top guys like Golovkin and Canelo to become a star.
”That chin is suspect,” said Arias bout Jacobs. ”I’m training for a fight I don’t plan on training for a marathon. Please, when I hit you, just don’t run. I am going to be in the middle of the ring. You’re not going to have to find me. I am going to be right there ready to fight. So like I said on November 11 I am shocking the world and everyone is going to see who Luis Arias is”
It would look bad if Jacobs runs from Arias, because this guy is being brought in for Jacobs to get a win over a top contender. Arias is rated #6 IBF, #9 WBC and #12 WBO. Jacobs needs to show the fans that he can stand in the center of the ring and punch with Arias. Jacobs was given a pass against Triple G for not standing and fighting with him. It was a different situation. Golovkin was the world champion, and the knockout artist that the other top contenders feared.
Arias isn’t coming into the fight with Jacobs with the same feared reputation. Jacobs needs to be able to stand in the pocket and go to war with Arias. It might be difficult for Jacobs to do that though, since he doesn’t have the greatest chin. Dmitriy Pirog and Sergio Mora both put Jacobs down. Arias has as much power as Pirog. I don’t think there’s any difference in Arias and Pirog’s power. Arias has as much power as Pirog did, and we saw what he did to Jacobs in 2010. Pirog knocked Jacobs out in the 6th round.
If things don’t turn out well for Jacobs in this fight, then his promoter Eddie Hearn is going to receive a ton of blame, because this is the fight that he wanted for him. Hearn wanted a top contender with talent that could give Jacobs a tough test, and have him display his boxing ability.
Arias is saying what a lot of people have said about Jacobs in his loss to Golovkin. Jacobs was moving too much for him to beat the champion, and he lost out on his chance to win by not being aggressive. The scoring by the judges that worked the fight was very generous to Jacobs. You saw some judges giving Jacobs 5 out of the last 6 rounds. Jacobs clearly didn’t win the last 5 rounds, and yet that’s what one judge had. Golovkin was up against it by fighting Jacobs in his hometown of New York.
”How many time as he hit the deck? Sergio Mora had eight knockouts. – he put him down,” said Arias about Jacobs being knocked down by Sergio Mora in their first fight. ”Did you see Sergio Mora? What happened to Pirog? Do you remember Pirog? HBO set it up for him to be a star.”
I wouldn’t say that HBO set Jacobs up to be a star. They signed him to a multi-fight contract to see what he’s got. It’s up to Jacobs to prove whether he has the talent to be a star. What we do know is Jacobs’ promoters have brought him along at a glacial pace during his 10-year pro career Jacobs was matched against weak opposition from 2007 until his fight with Pirog in 2010.
After Jacobs was knocked out in the Pirog fight, he was matched against poor opposition from 2010 to 2015. Starting in 2015 with his fight against Peter Quillin, Jacobs started being matched against good fighters. Jacobs knocked out Quillin in the 1st round, but then he was beaten by Golovkin.
”I’ve been watching Daniel Jacobs since I was 15, 16-years old and even back then he was getting dropped,” said Arias.
Arias isn’t giving Jacobs too much respect at all. Arias is going to have to bring his track shoes with him on November 11 in case Jacobs decides to move a lot. I hope he doesn’t. That would look bad if Jacobs runs from Arias. I don’t know how he’ll ever become a star if he’s going to move most of the time.
