By Allan Fox: Daniel Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) isn’t overlooking his opponent Maciej Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs) in their next fight on April 28th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Jacobs says he isn’t looking past Sulecki, but with the way he’s rambling about wanting to rule the middleweight division, it sure sounds like it.
Jacobs-Sulecki starts a 10PM ET/7PM PT on HBO as part of a doubleheader. The co-feature bout is unbeaten heavyweight contender Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller facing Johann Duhaupas. A win for Miller could get him a title shot against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Jacobs will be headlining on HBO World Championship Boxing against Poland’s Sulecki in a fight that is important for both guys. Sulecki, 28, needs a win to keep him in position for a world title fight. Jacobs needs to get a victory for him to still be able to call out Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin without being dismissed as not being good enough to share the ring with them. It was only 2 fights ago that Jacobs lost to Golovkin by a 12 round unanimous decision in March 2017. Jacobs feels he should have been given the decision, but the judges didn’t agree. They gave the win to GGG, who was the aggressor all throughout the fight.
Jacobs, 31, has a goal of ruling the 160 lb. division by beating Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez. Jacobs has already failed once in trying to beat GGG, and he’s trying to get a second fight against him because he feels he can do better in the rematch. Golovkin has big plans with own career that might not involve Jacobs. Golovkin will be fighting Canelo Alvarez in a rematch on May 5th, and after that that, he’ll fight WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. Fighting Jacobs is a backwards move for Golovkin. He’ll have an option of Alvarez a third time in 2019, and then facing the winner of the World Boxing Super Series tournament. Those are 4 good paying fights for Golovkin. Jacobs is the lesser fight in which Golovkin would take a smaller payday to beat a guy he already defeated last year.
“I know that I have to be at my best to make sure he doesn’t ruin my plans to rule the Middleweight division,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs’s dream of ruling the middleweight division is rather farfetched at this point. Jacobs is 31 now, and if there was a time for him to rule the 160 lb. weight class, but he now has plenty of competition with GGG, Canelo, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Jermall Charlo, Ryota Murata and Demetrius Andrade. It’s not helping Jacobs that his promoter Hearn isn’t eager to put him in with guys like Charlo. Jacobs can’t “rule” the 160 lb. weight class if he’s not able or winning to fight guys like Jermall Charlo. Beating Luis Arias and Sulecki are not enough. Jacobs needs to be able to prove that he can defeat the younger fighters are well.
“HBO believes in me and I am going to make sure I do my part,” Jacobs said. ”Arias was all talk, he didn’t give the fans what they were expecting. I believe Sulecki will bring a fight. With his determination that makes him dangerous.”
Jacobs is under contract with HBO right now, but if he doesn’t producing and looking good in his fights, he might mot remain in that position. Jacobs needs to look good in bring in big ratings. He didn’t look good last time against Arias last November. Jacobs boxed Arias, and he didn’t go after him the way he should have in fighting an opponent ranked low in the top 15 at middleweight. That was a showcase fight for Jacobs, and he fought him a lot like he did GGG by boxing and making sure he didn’t get hit.
Sulecki isn’t the biggest puncher in the middleweight division. Sulecki’s 38% knockout percentage suggests that he’s not a puncher, which is probably one of the biggest reasons he was selected by Jacobs’ management for him to fight. They didn’t match him against Charlo, Andrade or Derevyanchenko. Those guys would be a lot more difficult tests for Jacobs. Even Tureano Johnson would be a real tough test for Jacobs. Sulecki has a couple of good wins on his resume against Jack Culcay and Hugo Centeno Jr. Those were nice performances by Sulecki. He defeated Culcay by a 10 round unanimous decision in his last fight on the 21st of October in Newark. The scores were 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94. This is the same Culcay that Andrade had a lot of trouble beating last March. Andrade won a 12 round split decision. Granted, the fight took place in Germany where Culcay lives, but he still gave Andrade a great deal of problems. Sulecki was a lot more dominating in beating Culcay. If Sulecki can fight like that against Jacobs, he’ll have a good chance of scoring an upset over him. Hearn would have to re-think his ideas about Jacobs being the best fighter in the 160 lb. weight class. It wouldn’t be the end of the road for Jacobs if he loses to Sulecki, as Hearn is a smart promoter and he’ll find a way to get him a title shot against Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders or Murata.
Hearn will get Jacobs a quick title shot even if he’s knocked out by Sulecki. It’ll look bad Jacobs getting a shot at a title with him coming off yet another loss, but Hearn has done it before with his other fighters. Martin Murray has come up short 4 times in world title challenges, and he’s about to get his 5th title shot against Saunders next April.
Jacobs was recently rejected Saunders for a fight against him. Saunders said that he would need to get paid $6 million for the fight with Jacobs. Saunders also wasn’t too keen on the idea of going to New York to fight Jacobs in his own backyard. Jacobs feels that champions should be willing to defend against the best fighters. Unfortunately, Jacobs didn’t set a great example himself during the time he was the WBA World middleweight champion Jacobs defended twice against past his best former junior middleweight champion Sergio Mora instead of facing more talented contenders. Fighting Mora once was enough, but giving him a rematch after having already stopped him in the 2nd round, it looked to some boxing fans like Jacobs was milking his WBA 160 lb. title against weak opposition.
”Boxing is about the best fighting the best,” Jacobs said. ”Champions shouldn’t talk about what people bring to the table, they should fight the best.”
