By Dan Ambrose: Middleweight Daniel Jacobs (24-1, 21 KO’s) plans on moving down to the 154 pound division for his next fight on February 9th at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, according to RingTV. Jacobs, 25, will be fighting on the undercard of the Zab Judah vs. Danny Garcia fight.
Jacobs has been fighting at 160 since 2009 after moving down in weight from super middleweight, which is the weight class that Jacobs started his career at. Although Jacobs was successful at super middleweight, it was clear that he didn’t have the frame or the chin for that weight. He was a slightly better fit at 160.
However, even at that weight Jacobs soon had problems in getting stopped in the 5th round by Dmitry Pirog in July 2010. Jacobs continued to fight at that weight since then, but he’s fought no one even close to the same skill level as Pirog. He’s fought four times since that fight and it seems pretty clear that Jacobs will have problems once he starts facing better opposition again. Jacobs was hurt by Ishe Smith at this weight, and Smith isn’t known as being a big puncher.
At 154, Jacobs might to a little better if he’s not weight drained from moving down in weight once again. There are some big punchers in this weight class like Keith Thurman, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Vanes Martirosyan, Erislandy Lara, Cornelius Bundrage, Sergiy Rabchenko and Demetrius Andrade. I think Jacobs could be some of those guys depending on how well he takes their shots.
I haven’t liked what I’ve seen of Jacobs since he’s made his comeback after losing a year of his career due to a cancer problem. He’s not moving his head very much and he’s getting hit a lot easier than he did in the past. It’s going to take him a while before he gets back to where he was in the past, but he’s going to have to improve even more because he was flawed even when he was fighting at full strength.