Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergio Mora II moved to August or September

By Boxing News - 06/16/2016 - Comments

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By Jeff Aranow: The rematch between WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) and 35-year-old Sergio Mora (28-4-2, 9 KOs) will no longer be fighting on July 30 on the Showtime Boxing televised card. Instead, Jacobs and Mora will be headlining their own card in August or September, according to RingTV.com.

The Jacobs-Mora II fight was supposed to be the co-feature bout on the Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton card on 7/30 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Having Jacobs vs. Mora II headlining their own card will give the fight more status, even though it shapes up to be a terrible mismatch. Mora is more of a fringe contender at this point in his career than a top 10 guy. At the moment, Mora is ranked #14 by the WBA. You can’t give Mora a higher ranking because he hasn’t fought since August 2015, when he suffered an ankle injury in losing to Jacobs by a 2nd round stoppage at the Barclays Center.

In that fight, Mora and Jacobs were both down in the opening round of the contest. In the 2nd round, Jacobs was starting to dominate with his power shots. That was the round in which Mora suffered his ankle injury. Even if he hadn’t suffered the injury, it’s doubtful that Mora would have made it more than a round or two more. He was getting hit too cleanly by shots, and he looked like a fighter from a lower weight class fighting a guy that was just way too powerful for him.

Having the Jacobs-Mora fight off the Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz card on July 30 takes away some interest in that card, because Jacobs is a major star in his own right. It doesn’t matter that the rematch between Jacobs and Mora would likely have been a dreadful mismatch, the fight would have still attracted interest from boxing fans. Without the Jacobs-Mora II fight in the co-feature bout, the Santa Cruz – Frampton fight card isn’t quite as interesting as it would have been.

Hopefully for the sake of the boxing fans, the Jacobs-Mora II fight card has a good undercard, because this fight will likely end within two rounds. Mora is little more than a junior middleweight with very little power fighting in the middleweight division. Mora does not belong in the ring with major punchers like Jacobs in my view.

It seems obvious that Mora is getting the fight with Jacobs because he’s someone that is well known from his past fights when he had a brief bit of success in beating an out of shape Vernon Forrest in 2008 to capture the WBC junior middleweight title. However, that small window of success closed immediately for Mora, as he was easily beaten by Forrest by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in their rematch in September 2008.

Mora’s career quickly stalled out after the loss to Forrest, as he was twice beaten by journeyman Bryan Vera and held to a draw against Shane Mosley. The only fighters that Mora has beaten have been lesser guys from 2nd tier ranks. Part of Mora’s problems has been related to match-making. Mora hasn’t b routinely been put in with quality opposition since his loss to Forrest in 2008. Mora stopped being put in with the high caliber middleweights until he was matched against Jacobs, and his body fell apart in that fight.

Jacobs hasn’t fought since stopping Peter Quillin in the 1st round last December. It’s unclear why Jacobs hasn’t fought since then. He can’t afford to rest on his laurels after his wins because he’ll wind up shortchanging his career if he does that. By the time Jacobs does fight in August or September, he’ll have been out of the ring for eight to nine months. It’s okay for a fighter to be inactive and fighting part time when they’re at the end of their careers, but Jacobs is only 28, and he’s got a lot of time ahead of him if he can stay active.

If Jacobs becomes a part time fighter at this point in his career, then it’s likely we’ll see his skills deteriorate. The World Boxing Association will soon by ordering Jacobs to face Gennady Golovkin. It’s probably not a good idea for Jacobs to be incite and fighting soft guys like Mora if he wants to be sharp for a fight against Golovkin. However, it’s unknown if Jacobs will even take the fight with Golovkin. Jacobs is managed by Al Haymon, and it’s always possible that he could vacate his WBA title if the WBA tries to force his hand by having him fight a quality fighter like Golovkin.

Jacobs has arguably only fought two good opponents in his entire nine-year pro career and those were Dmitry Pirog, who destroyed him in a 6th round knockout in July 2010, and Quillin. The rest of the guys Jacobs has fought have been lesser guys with marginal talent.

Jacobs won the vacant WBA World middleweight two years ago in beating Jarrod Fletcher by a fifth round knockout in August 2014. Since then, Jacobs has beaten Caleb Truax, Sergio Mora and Quillin. We haven’t seen Jacobs step it up against more dangerous guys like Turano Johnson, David Lemieux, Golovkin, Curtis Stevens, or Chris Eubank Jr.

Jacobs is a good fighter, but he’s wasted much of his career fighting lesser opposition in fights where he had a clear advantage. The Mora fight is a perfect example of that. By going backwards and facing a guy that everyone knows Jacobs will beat, it just seems like a waste of time and a waste of his career. Jacobs should be moving on and looking to fight some of the above mentioned fighters. If not them, then Jacobs should be fighting the likes of Avtandil Khurtsidze, Alfonso Blanco or Andy Lee. Those at least would be fights where that would be a chance of Jacobs potentially losing. You can’t say that with Jacobs vs. Mora II fight, because it’s a mismatch between a big puncher and an aging finesse fighter, whose career has been sinking ever since his loss to Forrest eight years ago.