By Dan Ambrose: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn and his fighter Daniel Jacobs appear to have an agreement with Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan for April 28 on HBO Boxing the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
HBO still hasn’t confirmed that the Jacobs-O’Sullivan fight is a done deal for April 28th, but with the way that Hearn and O’Sullivan are celebrating, it appears that they have an agreement for the fight.
Hearn must have thrown a lot of money at O’Sullivan to get him to agree to a non-title fight against Jacobs. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hearn threw title challenger money at O’Sullivan to get him to give the green light to the fight. I’m not talking about the kind of money a fighter gets to face Canelo.
I’m talking about the kind of money a challenger gets to face Gennady Golovkin. Hearn likely gave O’Sullivan a healthy enough offer for him to agree quickly. It would be a shame if O’Sullivan surprised Jacobs by nailing him with one of his big right hands to knock him out. Jacobs’ chin is not the best. He does not take a shot well. Golovkin likely would have knocked Jacobs out last year if he’d shown some aggression in the first 6 rounds instead of wasting his time being him.
Here’s what O’Sullivan said to Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn on Wednesday on social media:
”We accept the offer, Eddie. Send the contracts to Golden Boy Boxing @KenDKM @murphysboxing @packycollins P.S. Your man is going down 💯👊😴”
O’Sullivan has beaten badly in the past by Chris Eubank Jr. and Billy Joe Saunders. Those fights showed how limited O’Sullivan is. He’s similar to David Lemieux in being a hard puncher, but one that can be easily out-boxed. Eubank Jr. didn’t even try and box O’Sullivan. He beat him by volume punching, and shut him down. O’Sullivan stopped throwing punches after the first 3 rounds, and took shots until he was stopped in the 7th. It was a really poor effort from O’Sullivan. However, O’Sullivan has come back from that defeat to win his last 5 fights in beating Jaime Barboza, Ronald Montes, Chauncey Fields, Nick Quigley and Antoine Douglas
HBO will likely be happy to televise Jacobs-O’Sullivan, because they got a slugger facing a former slugger in Jacobs. O’Sullivan is a pure slugger, who doesn’t know any other way but to try and knock his opponents out. Jacobs used to fight like that, but he had a bad experience against Dmitry Pirog, and he’s been timid ever since. Hearn probably would have loved to have had Jacobs as one of his Matchroom Sport stable fighters before he was knocked out by Pirog, because he braver back then and more fun to watch. Nowadays, Jacobs fights like he’s afraid of his own shadow much of the time. He gave away the first 6 rounds against Golovkin by running from him.
This should be a mismatch in favor of Jacobs. I say it ‘should be,’ because you never know what you’re going to get with Jacobs. He gets stunned when he gets hit to the head. Sergio Mora knocked Jacobs down in their first fight in August 2015, and he’s not a big puncher. Dmitry Pirog knocked Jacobs out in the 5th round in July 2010, and he didn’t do much other than stalk him around the ring, take some of his best shots and then return fire. Pirog didn’t fight Jacobs the way Golovkin did by just boxing him from the outside for 12 rounds. Pirog was on a seek and destroy mission in looking for one shot to hit Jacobs with. Pirog seemed to really enjoy himself in that fight. Pirog just knew he was going to win, and sure enough, he knocked Jacobs out cold in the 5th round.
This is what Hearn and Jacobs have both wanted. They have a beatable fighter in 33-year-old O’Sullivan, who is coming off an impressive win on HBO Boxing After Dark with his 7th round knockout victory over Antoine Douglas last month on December 16th on the undercard of the Billy Joe Saunders vs. David Lemieux card at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada. O’Sullivan, #13 WBC, gained some notoriety from the casual and hardcore boxing fans in the U.S, so now Hearn is going to match his fighter Jacobs, 30, in hopes that he’ll shine and he can gain more hype to build him up to face the winner or the loser of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin 2 rematch on May 5.
Jacobs did not look good in his first fight under Hearn’s promotional banner last November in beating Luis Arias by a boring 12 round unanimous decision in Uniondale, New York. That was also #3 IBF, #3 WBC and #4 WBO Jacob’s first fight of his multi-fight contract with HBO. If Hearn has any hopes for Jacobs getting his contract extended with HBO, he’s going to need to start looking good for a change, as he looked bad in his loss to Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin last year in March in losing a 12 round decision, and then he wasn’t exciting in the Arias fight. When Hearn signed Jacobs, he might have thought that he was getting the fighter that blew out Peter Quillin in a 1st round knockout in December 2015. Jacobs looked good in that fight, but he hasn’t impressed since then.
Here’s what Hearn said:
”Let’s go! @ DanielJacobsTKO. We are ready.”
The fact that Jacobs and Hearn are so excited about the O’Sullivan fight tells you all you need to know. If they were worried about O’Sullivan, he’d be on the ignore list like Jermall Charlo obviously is. Hearn was asked recently if he’d be interested in letting Charlo fight Jacobs, and he said that he’s not on our radar screen. You can read that however you want, but I see it as flat out fear. Charlo is dangerous for Jacobs, so he’s not even being seen on Hearn’s radar. The less dangerous guys like O’Sullivan are on Hearn’s radar screen. Hence, Hearn is chomping at the bit to get O’Sullivan signed to fight Jacobs for April 28. I don’t know why O’Sullivan would take the fight though. All he needs to do is keep winning against the opposition he’s been fighting lately and sooner or later he’ll get a title shot against one of the champions.