By Patrick McHugh: WBA World middleweight champion Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) has what he calls a “stay-busy fight” this Friday night in his rematch against 35-year-old Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora (28-4-2, 9 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the Santander Arena, in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Jacobs’ management and Spike must believe that the Jacobs-Mora II fight will bring in good ratings with the casual boxing fans, because otherwise there is absolutely no reason at all for the 29-year-old Jacobs to be putting his pro career in reverse gear to fight Mora a second time.
The rematch makes no sense other than for ratings purposes. Mora must be someone that can bring in ratings, because Jacobs already stopped him in the 2nd round last year in August 2015. Mora suffered an ankle injury in the 2nd round of their fight and couldn’t continue, but the injury occurred when he was knocked down. It wasn’t as if Mora just slipped. He was nailed by Jacobs and went down.
Jacobs proved clearly that he was the better fighter, so there’s really no point in him fighting Mora a second time, especially with Mora not having fought now for an entire year since that loss. Additionally, Mora isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies. There’s no reason for Jacobs to fight an unranked, aging fighter that has been inactive for the past 13 months. When you see this rematch, all you can conclude is that Jacobs’ management sees it as a fight that will attract interest from the casual fans and bring in good ratings without it being a dangerous fight for Jacobs.
“This is kind of like a just-stay-busy fight because we weren’t able to get the fight that we actually wanted, for whatever reason,” said Jacobs. “But, to me, I don’t think this does anything for my career. Like I said before, we’ve always wanted to move up to bigger and better opposition each time out. This is kind of a step back…this is for me an opportunity to kind of quiet the critics and just make the final statement once and for all that I am the better fighter, better boxer,” said Jacobs.
It’s a big step back for Jacobs, because he’s not moving his career forward by facing an opponent that is young, unbeaten and/or ranked in the top 15. Jacobs is fighting the same guy – an aging fighter with no power, who hasn’t beaten anyone good since his win over an out of shape Vernon Forrest in 2008. Forrest came back to defeat Mora in their rematch three months later in September 2008. Since then, Mora’s career has been a disappointment. He’s done nothing. Mora was even beaten twice by journeyman Brian Vera. Why then the management for Jacobs had him waste two fights of his career fighting Mora is hard to understand. There are so many better fighters for Jacobs to be facing than Mora in the middleweight division. It’s almost unfair to Jacobs that he’s being stuck with this kind of opposition.
The good news is that Jacobs will soon get a tremendous bump up in competition for his next fight. The World Boxing Association president Gilberto Mendoza plans on ordering Jacobs to face WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in his next fight in November or December. This means that Jacobs’ management will need to make a decision whether to let that fight happen or have him vacate the WBA title in order to avoid a potential knockout loss. It would certainly be a disappointment if that’s what they have Jacobs do, especially given that he’s not done much with his career in the last six years other than his fights against Peter Quillin and Dmitry Pirog. Those were the only two guys that you can call quality opponents on Jacobs’ resume during the last six years of his career. Pirog stopped Jacobs in the 6th round in 2010. Jacobs stopped Peter Quillin in the 1st round last December. Jacob’s other fights in the last six years have come against this lot: Caleb Truax, Jarrod Fletcher, Milton Nunez, Giovanni Lorenzo, Keenan Collins, Chris Fitzpatrick, Josh Luteran, Robert kliewere and Jesse Orta. It’s a pretty disappointing group of fighters once you take away Quillin and Pirog’s name. All the rest of them are a mediocre bunch of fighters.
Jacobs will likely have no problems beating Mora on Friday night. Jacobs, 29, will likely focus on throwing single power shots all night long to keep Mora from being able to land anything. Where Jacobs got into trouble briefly in his previous fight with Mora was when he was throwing combinations in the 1st round, and got caught with a counter shot that put him down. Once Jacobs settled down and started firing off big punches one at a time, Mora had no chance and was at his mercy. The fight predictably ended in the 2nd round after Jacobs dropped him. There was an injury, of course, but the knockdown was legit. Had Mora not suffered the injury, I think he would have been quickly knocked out in the round. That’s why it’s so hard to understand why there’s a need for a second fight between them. Jacobs proved clearly that he’s the better fighter than Mora, so there’s no real point in having to fight the aging 35-year-old “Latin Snake” a second time other than for ratings purposes.