By Dan Ambrose: WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (29-1, 26 KOs) will be taking another voluntary defense of his WBA title on August 1st against #11 WBA fringe contender Sergio Mora (28-3-2, 9 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
It’s a safe fight for Jacobs, who hasn’t faced a tough opponent since getting blown out in 6 rounds by Dmitry Pirog in 2010. With all the available options for Jacobs to fight, Mora is clearly one of the safer fights for him due to his lack of punching power and his advanced age of 34.
The Jacobs-Mora fight will be on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN, which will give fans a chance to see Jacobs in action. It’s basically a showcase/stay busy type of fight for Jacobs, as there are guys in the top 15 that would likely give Jacobs all he could handle and give him a much tougher fight than the aging Mora.
Mora previously held the WBA junior middleweight title many years ago in 2008 after beating an out of shape Vernon Forrest. But in Mora’s next fight, he was easily beaten by Forrest, and since then, Mora’s career has kind of been nowhere. Mora has twice been beaten by journeyman Brian Vera, but after winning his last five fights over weak opposition, Mora finds himself getting a world title shot.
I don’t think Mora rates a world title shot, but he’s getting one none the less. Mora’s recent wins have come against Abraham Han, Dashon Johnson, Grzegorz Proksa, Milton Nunez and Samuel Rogers. Like I said, Mora hasn’t beaten anyone that you can call a good fighter since his victory over an out of shape Forrest seven years ago.
Jacobs should be defending his title against the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Tureano Johnson, Chris Eubanks Jr., Arif Magomedov, Dmitry Chudinov, Billy Joe Saunders, Willie Monroe Jr., Martin Murray or Curtis Stevens. Those are the fighters that Jacobs needs to be proving himself against rather than facing fringe contenders like Mora or Caleb Truax, who Jacobs defeated in his last fight.
“I’m looking forward to making the best out of this opportunity and most importantly I want to give the Brooklyn fans a great show,” Jacobs said. “I get to go to work in my own backyard.”
The Jacobs vs. Mora fight will be on the same card as the Danny Garcia vs. Paulie Malignaggi fight. That’s considered a mismatch in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans, but you can also say the same thing about the Jacobs vs. Mora fight. Those are two fights where the A-side fighter is clearly going to win. Malignaggi hasn’t fought in a year since his loss to Shawn Porter in 2014, and he’s up there in age at 34. It doesn’t take a genius to see that is little more than a showcase fight for Danny Garcia to make him look good and to give him an easy payday.
The Garcia-Malignaggi & Jacobs-Mora fight card starts at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m PT on ESPN on August 1st.
I’d like to see Jacobs finally step up and face someone of quality again. It’s been five years since Pirog destroyed Jocobs, and I think it’s about time Jacobs starts fighting good fighters again. He’s the WBA middleweight champion, but with the match-making that’s being done for him, he might as well be a mere contender because he’s not fighting good opponents. Mora is little more than a bottom feeder in the middleweight division as far as I’m concerned, and I don’t even rate him as a top 20 contender. You know things are bad when a guy like Vera is beating you over and over again, which is what’s happened to Mora.
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