By Jeff Aranow: Daniel Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) has a tough opponent in Maciel Sulecki scheduled on April 28 on HBO, but if he wins that fight, he says he’ll be pleased to face Jermall Charlo if he doesn’t get the Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin winner from their rematch on May 5th.
Jacobs, 31, is assuming that he’s going to get past Poland’s Sulecki on the 24th on April in their fight on HBO Boxing. Sulecki is too good of a fighter for Jacobs to take for granted. This isn’t Luis Arias or a past his prime Peter Quillin. Sulecki, 28, is younger than Jacobs, and he’s the skills and the punching power to beat him if he’s not focused 100%. Even if Jacobs is focused, he still might lose.
Jacobs and Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs) have been going back and forth in trash talking lately. Last Saturday night, Jacobs ran into Charlo at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn while attending the Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz fight. Jacobs confronted Charlo and the two had words. Charlo told Jacobs he’d be willing to fight him on HBO.
For Jacobs to fight Charlo, he’s going to need to have a talk with his promoter Eddie Hearn, because he’s not shown any interest in making that fight. Hearn seems to think that Jacobs will be able to get the winner of the Caenlo-GGG 2 fight. That’s very unlikely though, as Golovkin is more interested in facing WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders next if he’s victorious over Canelo. Jacobs is probably not someone Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy would be interested in. They’re going to be looking for an easier fight for Canelo to take in between a third fight with Triple G.
”All my focus right now is on Maciej Sulecki and I know it’s going to be a tough fight,” Jacobs said. ”This is the third undefeated fighter I have faced in a row and after I’ve taken his 0, then if I don’t get the ‘GGG’ vs. Canelo winner, I’m happy to take Jermall Charlo’s 0 too.”
Jacobs’ promoter Hearn naively thinks the winner of the Canelo-GGG rematch is going to fight him. It doesn’t work like that when it comes to the popular fighters. Hearn is used to getting his own way in the UK, where he promotes IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Hearn is accustomed to getting whatever fights he wants for Joshua. It’s a different story with Jacobs. He’s not popular in the U.S the way Joshua is in the UK. Jacobs is NOT a PPV attraction in the U.S, and he likely never will be. Golovkin already beat Jacobs, so he’s no longer of interest for him. Canelo probably won’t ever fight Jacobs, because he brings nothing to the table. That could change if Jacobs started fighting the best guys in the middleweight division like Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade and Sergiy Derevyanchenko and proved that he could bet those guys.
”Ultimately, we want the ‘GGG vs. Canelo’ winner but there’s some real sauce in a ‘Jacobs vs. Charlo’ match up and it’s one the fans would love to see,” Hearn said.
Jacobs will have run out of opponents to fight after the Sulecki fight, so Hearn should be taking serious interest in making that fight for him. In the best possible world, Jacobs would get the winner of the Canelo-GGG fight, and he would also get the winner of the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight tournament as well. This is the real world, and Jacobs is not a hot commodity in the U.S. He doesn’t sell. The major reason for that is the many years Jacobs fought weak opposition. If you look at Jacobs’ resume, he fought nobodies from 2007 to 2009. After a defeat to Dmitry Pirog in 2010, Jacobs fought weak opposition until his fight with a past his prime Peter Quillin in 2015. That was 5 years of tune-up level fighters for Jacobs. In 2017, Jacobs lost to Golovkin, and then he wasted a fight against Luis Arias instead of fighting someone good. Now he’s fighting a junior middleweight instead of someone from the 160 lb. weight class. Jacobs should be happy to fight Charlo, because this is the type of fight that he really needs to increase his popularity, and yet he probably won’t take the fight.
Jacobs is wasting his time pining away for a fight that will never happen against the winner of the Canelo-GGG 2 fight instead of recognizing that he’s not going to either of those guys. Hearn has a lot of British fighters signed to his Matchroom Sport stable. He should be looking to match Kell Brook against Jacobs. That would be a good fight. Hearn also promotes Callum Smith. He should push for Smith to fight Jacobs after he gets done with the WBSS tournament. Jacobs is a super middleweight in size. That much is clear. He’s fought most of his fights above 160 during his career.
Hearn needs to take advantage of all the fighters he has in his Matchroom Sport stable and start using them to increase the popularity of Jacobs, because he’s not young at 31. At best, Jacobs might have 3 more years left before he’s over-the-hill. Right now, Jacobs might not be good enough to beat Charlo or Sergiy Derevyachenko. Jacobs needs to step it up a level and start fighting those type of opponents instead of wasting time with guys like Luis Arias and Sulecki. At least if Jacobs loses to Charlo and Derevyanchenko, he’d have lost to high caliber fighters from the 160lb weight class.