By Dan Ambrose: Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) admits that he has a tough fight on his hands this Saturday night against unbeaten Luis Arias (18-0, 9 KOs), but that’s not keeping him from looking past him towards potential future fights against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Saul Canelo Alvarez, David Lemieux, Billy Joe Saunders and Jermall Charlo.
(Photo credit: Ed Mulholland-Matchroom Boxing USA)
Jacobs feels that he’s now in the right place with HBO and his new promoter Eddie Hearn to get all the big fights to secure his future after boxing. Jacobs believes that with HBO and Hearn, he’ll get the fights he wants against the Canelo-Golovkin and Lemieux-Saunders winners. If Jacobs beats Arias this Saturday night in their fight on HBO Boxing, his next target is to fight the winner of the December 16th fight between Saunders and Lemieux. Jacobs sees the possibility of him getting the winner of that fight in the first quarter of 2018.
Jacobs must first beat Arias. The two middleweights will fight this Saturday at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Undefeated heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller fights on the undercard against Mariusz Wach in the co-feature fight. Miller could be the star of the show unless Jacobs is on his J-O-B this Saturday. Jacobs needs to bring the fight against Arias, and not use so much movement like he did in his last fight with Gennady Golovkin on March 18th on HBO PPV.
Jacobs was very static for many of the rounds, fighting defensively and looking like he was afraid to stand and fight. Jacobs didn’t take a ton of criticism for that approach by the boxing fans, because he was fighting one of the best fighters in the 160-pound division in GGG, but he can’t do that against Luis Arias on Saturday. The fans won’t understand Jacobs fighting in a timid manner against a little-known guy like Arias. That’s why it’s important that Jacobs gives the fans a great show by going to war with Arias, and ducking his challenge when he tries to get him to meet in the center of the ring to start throwing bombs.
“Come Saturday night, I have a tough challenge in front of me,” said Jacobs to secondsout. “I know what to do. I’m well equipped.”
It’s interesting that the boxing public believes this is going to be an easy job for Jacobs in getting past the 27-year-old Arias. It seems that most in the sports world believes that Jacobs was handed a soft job so that he’ll get a sure thing win on HBO. Arias is a very good fighter with power that is at least equal to Dmitry Pirog, a guy that Jacobs was knocked out by in 2010. Arias hits hard enough to knockout Jacobs if he can put hands on him.
“There’s politics in boxing, and that’s a big money fight,” said Jacobs in talking about his loss to Gennady Golovkin and the subsequent Canelo-GGG fight that took place last September. “Me being with HBO is going to secure my future, and secure some title shots in the future. I want to go to Montreal and see what the hype is all about,” said Jacobs about his decision to attend the Billy Joe Saunders vs. David Lemieux fight on December 16 in Montreal. “If we don’t got these guys right now, because they’re contractually tied,” said Jacobs about Canelo and Golovkin. “Then we’re going to go after the next big thing. I’m just fortunate that these guys are with the same network as me. Given to the fact that I get the victory, and I’m sure I will, I just want to make my name and my presence felt.” said Jacobs.
Jacobs still thinks he should have been given the win over Golovkin last September. Jacobs has a tough time admitting that he didn’t do enough in the first half of the fight to get the win. That’s where Jacobs gave away his chances of winning against GGG. Jacobs spent too much time running, and not enough time standing and fighting Golovkin. When Jacobs finally did start to fight Golovkin in the last 5 rounds of the bout, he was already so far behind that he needed to win all the remaining rounds and get a knockdown. The judges gave Jacobs 5 out of the last 6 rounds, which were very generous of them because he didn’t appear to win that many rounds, but he didn’t get a knockdown.
Jacobs lost the fight, but he’s making noise ever since by saying he should have won. You’ve to say that Jacobs is at least constant with the way he reacts to his loss. After Jacobs’ 5th round knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010, he said the referee shouldn’t have stopped the fight. Jacobs felt that the referee stopped it too quickly, and that he should have waited for him to open his eyes and get back to his feet. The referee appeared to react to the way Jacobs was motionless on the canvas with his eyes shut. Most referees stop fights when they see a fighter in that condition.
“He’s ranked in the top 10 with the IBF,” said Jacobs about Arias. “A lot of guys don’t know who this guy is doesn’t make him not good. So, I got to make sure I’m on my Ps and Qs. I’m a 160 pound fighter, and I’ve been throughout my career. It’s that much easier [to make weight]. I am not going to worry about 168 until I conquer 160,” said Jacobs when asked if he’ll be moving up to super middleweight soon.
Arias is a very good fighter. Whether he has enough talent to beat Jacobs, we’ll find out on Saturday night. Jacobs’ management picked out a guy that was good enough to get approved by HBO, but they didn’t pick someone that would have a 50-50 chance of beating him. Jacobs is still the favorite in the fight. Had Jacobs’ team selected a dangerous guy like Jermall Charlo or Sergiy Derevyanchenko, then there would be a lot of unknowns going into Saturday’s fight. Those 2 fighters would be a real problem for Jacobs due to their power and overall talent. Jacobs would possibly lose to both of those guys.
Eddie Hearn has already said that Charlo is not someone that he’s interested in matching against Jacobs. That suggests that Hearn might not like the idea of testing Jacobs against a talented contender that could maybe beat him. Arias might be good enough to do the job as well though. This is still a fight that Jacobs could very well lose. Jacobs has never been a solid guy that was unbeatable. He’s always brought a sense of drama to his fights in terms of him potentially getting knocked out. Since the Pirog fight, Jacobs’ management has been VERY careful with the match-making they’ve done for him. He’s had very few risks during the last 7 years. In fact, Jacobs has only fought 2 risky opponents since 2010, and those were Golovkin and Peter Quillin. The rest of the fighters Jacobs has fought have been guys in which he was the clear favorite to win.
“I still think it’s Triple G,” said Jacobs in remarking that he believes Golovkin is still the best fighter in the middleweight division. “I don’t think Canelo got a draw. I think he lost by 3 rounds. Jermall, he’s on the list as well. I’m going after the top guys. I don’t care what he says, and what he feels. We’re ready to fight everybody. Charlo is no different, trust me. He can get this work,” said Jacobs.
Like a lot of people, Jacobs feels that Canelo didn’t deserve the win over Golovkin last September. Jermall Charlo wants to fight Jacobs, and he’s thinks he’s running from him. Both are highly rated by the World Boxing Council. The WBC will have Charlo fight for the interim WBC middleweight title in his next fight. It would be nice if Jacobs were willing to fight Charlo for the interim WBC belt, but it doesn’t look like that’s in his plans. Jacobs wants the Saunders-Lemieux winner, and then the winner of the Canelo-Golovkin rematch. It would help Jacobs if he did fight Charlo, because it would raise his status in the boxing world a lot more than him fighting Arias and the Saunders vs. Lemieux winner. Jacobs’s management don’t seem interested in putting him in with Charlo. You can speculate why they don’t want to make that move. My guess is they feel that Jacobs cold lose to the younger 27-year-old Charlo, and that would wreck his chances for a big payday fight against the Canelo vs. GGG winner.
“With all due respect, I’ll stop Canelo,” said Jacobs.
It sounds good that Jacobs is saying that he’d knockout Canelo, but it’s unlikely. Jacobs isn’t aggressive enough to score a knockout over a fighter like Canelo. More likely, Jacobs would box and move for 12 rounds, and wind up losing a 12-round decision to Canelo. It’s doubtful the judges would give Jacobs too many rounds against Canelo if he stayed on his bike the entire fight like he mostly did against Golovkin.
