By Jason KIm: Unbeaten super middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs (16-0, 14 KOs) was forced to go the distance for only the second time in his two-year pro career on Saturday night when he defeated middleweight Michael Walker (19-2-2, 12 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 80-72, 79-73 and 80-72.
I had Jacobs winning all eight rounds of the fight, although I wasn’t all that impressed with his power or his performance given all the hype around the 22-year-old fighter. Having seen Jacobs on a number of occasions against terrible opponents, I didn’t see any real big power from him that would warrant all the knockouts that Jacobs was piling up.
Jacobs can hit hard, but not as hard as many other super middleweights in the division. The difference is Jacobs’ opponents were just so bad that they would crumble from even moderately hard shots, many of them. On Saturday night, Jacobs started off fast in the opening round, looking to be trying to take Walker out immediately.
It wasn’t going to happen, though, because Walker wasn’t the least bothered by Jacobs’ shots. Late in the 1st, Jacobs tried his best to take Walker out by throwing a flurry of shots as Walker calmly covered up on the ropes. However, by the time the round ended, Jacobs looked tired and Walker looked none too impressed.
After the 1st round, Jacobs looked as if he wasn’t even going to try and take Walker out, perhaps knowing that it was a lost cause. Instead, Jacobs focused on his jab and used it pretty much exclusively from rounds two through eight. Jacobs circled continuously, jabbing and occasionally throwing brief combinations.
For his part, Walker did little in each of the rounds, throwing a few token combinations here and there, but not having the work rate or speed to compete with Jacobs. In the 8th round, Walker landed some big shots to the head of Jacobs. However, Jacobs shut him down by getting to the outside and using his jab to dominate the rest of the round.
It was a good win for Jacobs, although I don’t see him as being a potential champion at super middleweight, at least not while Mikkel Kessler and Lucian Bute are around. I think Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward are both a lot better prospects than Jacobs, with better hand speed and better overall power.
Jacobs is young enough to wait out Kessler and Bute, but not Ward and Dirrell. The best thing that Jacobs could do is either move up to light heavyweight or move down to middleweight where he would have a much better chance of winning a belt one day. Both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions are devoid of talent right now and Jacobs could do well for awhile there until someone better comes along.
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