By Dan Ambrose: Middleweight contender Daniel ‘Miracle Man’ Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) will be back inside the ring in April on HBO. This is supposed to be a tougher opponent for Jacobs than his last one on HBO against Luis Arias last November.
Luis Arias was Jacobs’ first fight of his multi-fight deal with HBO. The network let Jacobs take an easy opponent for his first fight. His next fight on HBO is supposed to be against someone good. Gary O’Sullivan would be a decent opponent for Jacobs, but he might get snatched up by WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders for his first fight in 2018. I’m sure O’Sullivan would prefer a title shot against Saunders in the UK to a non-title fight against Jacobs in the U.S.
There’s not a lot of options for Jacobs to fight in April in terms of top level guys that would be willing to fight him. The top guys like Jermall Charlo and Sergey Derevyanchenko are already mandatory challengers to champion Gennady Golovkin. They’re not going to want to take on Jacobs, and I doubt that Jacobs’s promoter Eddie Hearn would want to make those fights. Those are dangerous guys.
Jacobs and his promoter Eddie Hearn want a fight against WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders for that date but it’s unlikely to happen. Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) has his golden ticket for a fight against the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin fight, and he’s not going to spoil for anything. The WBO made it easy for Saunders by making David Lemieux his mandatory challenger rather than Jacobs, who they have rated lower at #4 WBO. Had Jacobs fought Saunders last Saturday night instead of Lemieux, he’d likely be the new WBO middleweight champion today.
Jacobs being with the British promoter Eddie Hearn might have made it all but impossible for a fight between him and Saunders to take place without him being the mandatory challenger. It’s unlikely Saunders’ promoter will agree to a fight against Jacobs when all they have to do is take an easy fight in early 2018, and then wait on the results for the Canelo-GGG 2 fight.
If Hearn is serious about wanting to match Jacobs against a good fighter for his next fight in April, then these his best options:
• Gary O’Sullivan
• Billy Joe Saunders
• Demetrius Andrade
• Tureano Johnson
• Maciej Sulecki
• Jesse Hart
• Parick Nielsen
I threw in some super middleweights because Jacobs is basically a super middleweight fighter, who melts down to fight at 160. Most of Jacobs’ fights during his pro career have been at super middleweight rather than middleweight. Jacobs could probably fight at light heavyweight if he wanted to, as he looked huge for his last 2 fights like someone from the 175-lb. division.
Jacobs’ promoter will possibly opt to match him against a British middleweight. If he does that, it’ll be one of these guys:
• Martin Murray
• Andy Lee
• Tommy Langford
“You guys can expect to see me back on HBO in April,” said Jacobs to Fighthype. “Would I fight Billy Joe Saunders in England? Absolutely. I’d love to come to England, especially for a world title fight,” said Jacobs.