Jacobs vs. Smith on Saturday Night

By Boxing News - 08/21/2009 - Comments

By Jim Dower: Unbeaten middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs (17-0, 15 KO’s) will be taking a big step up in competition on Saturday night against defensive specialist Ishe Smith (21-3, 9 KO’s) at the Toyota, Center, in Houston, Texas. Jacobs, 22, is looking to put together an impressive performance so he can continue to move up the World Boxing Association rankings, where he is currently ranked at number #5.

Jacobs, a former amateur star in the U.S., has changed his fighting style somewhat in his last two bouts, and is becoming more of a well rounded boxer-puncher in the style of a Roy Jones Jr. type fighter, only with slightly more power than Jones.

By his management putting Jacobs in with Smith, a former contestant on the reality boxing series called The Contender, they will see how Daniel reacts when facing a pure boxer with good skills and excellent movement. Jacobs is likely going to need his track shoes on in this one in order to keep up with the movement from Smith, because Ishe isn’t going to just stand in front of Jacobs and eat jabs all night long.

Jacobs easily defeated his last opponent, George Walton in a 8th round TKO in June. Jacobs boxed Walton through much of the fight, jabbing him and picking spots to unload on him with big power shots. In the 8th round, Jacobs let loose with a storm of power shots while Walton was trapped against the ropes and ended up badly hurting him with a right hand and left uppercut.

The bout was quickly stopped at that point by the referee. Walton was supposed to have been a step up for Jacobs, but he ended up looking over-matched and not a good opponent. Perhaps Jacobs’ best opponent to date was Michael Walker, who stood in there against Jacobs and gave him some problems with his heavy pressure and big shots.

Jacobs realized early on that he wasn’t going to be able to knock this guy out and chose to instead box and move for the full eight rounds. Had Jacobs stood and traded with Walker, the fight may have turned ugly for Jacobs because Walker’s power was very respectable and he had no trouble taking Jacobs’ best power shots.

Smith, 31, has lost two out of his last five fights against Joel Julio and Sechew Powell. Smith had problems with their big power and wasn’t able to stand in the pocket for long without getting nailed by big shots. Before that, Smith had been defeated by Sergio Mora in 2004 while fighting in The Contender series.

On Saturday night, Smith is going to have to find a way to land enough punches while at the same time avoiding Jacobs’ big shots. Otherwise, this fight is likely going to end up as one-sided as Jacobs’ last fight against Walton. Smith doesn’t have the flexibility that Jacobs has by being able to punch it out, because of his lack of power, so he’s going to have to be extra careful that he doesn’t run into one of Jacobs’ huge shots.



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