By Jim Dower: Middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs (21-1, 18 KO’s) will be returning to action for the second time since being destroyed by Dmitriy Pirog when he fights on the undercard of the Saul Alvarez vs. Matthew Hatton card on March 5th at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. No opponent has been picked out as of yet for the 23-year-old Jacobs, but given how badly he was schooled by Pirog, you would have to imagine that it won’t be anyone dangerous or any kind of threat to Jacobs.
Right now, Jacob’s promoters are looking to rebuild his confidence by getting some easy wins under his belt while at the same time giving him opportunities to learn. Jacobs missed out on a lot of learning by being matched too softly in his first 17 fights, as he was able to knock many of his opponents out in the 1st and 2nd rounds. By the time he was put in with Ishe Smith in 2009, Jacobs still looked like a complete novice and didn’t seem comfortable at all in that fight.
To his credit, Jacobs defeated Smith, but it was by a fairly close 10 round decision in which he was staggered. After that fight, Jacobs was served up two more easy opponents, both of which he stopped early. And then Jacobs was pitted against Pirog in a fight for the vacant WBO middleweight title last July. Jacobs was no competition for Pirog and was battered around the ring until being stopped by a crushing right hand from Pirog in the 5th. Since then, Jacobs was put in with Jesse Orta (7-13-2), and defeated him by a 5th round TKO in December.
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