Daniel Jacobs vs. Maciej Sulecki – Official weights

By Boxing News - 04/27/2018 - Comments

Image: Daniel Jacobs vs. Maciej Sulecki – Official weights

By Dan Ambrose: Daniel Jacobs, Maciek Sulecki, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller and Johann Duhuapas all weighed in on Friday for their fights this Saturday night on HBO World Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The televised portion of the Jacobs vs. Sulecki card on HBO will begin at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.

Jacobs looked really weight drained at the weigh-in. You can tell that he’s going to blow up overnight when he rehydrates for the fight. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jacobs is over 190 lbs. on Saturday night. During Jacobs’ career, he’s weighed in as a super middleweight 24 of his 35 fights as a pro. You can argue that Jacobs is for all intents and purposes a super middleweight [168], who drains down to 160 to fight smaller fighters than himself. They call fighters that do that a ‘weight bully.’ It would be interesting to see how Jacobs would do at super middleweight against the likes of George Groves, Callum Smith, David Benavidez and Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. That’s the division where Jacobs should probably be fighting at rather than him melting down to 160 to fight in the middleweight class.

This is Jacobs’ chance to show that he’s as good as he says he is. Jacobs has been saying he’s the best middleweight in the division today. If this is true, he should be able to knockout Sulecki without any problems. If Jacobs, 31, KO Sulecki, it will at least back up some of what he’s been saying about how he’s better than the other top fighters in the 160 lb. weight class. For Jacobs to be taken seriously, his promoter Eddie Hearn is going to need to take a risk with him by matching him against unbeaten Jermall Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) like he’s been talking about wanting to do.

Former IBF middleweight champion Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) weighed in at 159.6 pounds for his WBA middleweight title eliminator against Poland’s Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs). For his part, the 28-year-old Sulecki weighed in at 159.2 lbs.

”I believe Sulecki will come to fight and it takes two to tango,” Jacobs said to skysports.com. ”We’ll see if Sulecki can take my shots, but if not, it’s going to be a good night in Brooklyn.”

We’ll see if Jacobs can handle Sulecki’s shots, as he punches as hard as Dmitry Pirog, and he’s aggressive like him. Jacobs had better keep his guard up on Saturday, because Sulecki punches well on the inside. That’s what makes him hard to beat. Sulecki throws short shots really well, and he’s a lot better at fighting on the inside than Gennady Golovkin. When he was on the inside against Jacobs, he didn’t do much. Sulecki is a different type of fighter. He’s very comfortable on the inside.

Jacobs is going to have to try and keep the action on the outside if he wants to keep from getting knocked out.

The winner of the Jacobs-Sulecki fight will be the WBA mandatory challenger to WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin However, it is still might take until 2020 before Jacobs or Sulecki gets the title shot against the winner of the Golovkin vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez fight, because they have other options. Golovkin wants to fight WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders after he faces Canelo in a rematch on September 15. If Golovkin beats Saunders, then he’ll need to face his IBF mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko. There’s also a possibility that Golovkin could face WBA World middleweight champion Ryota Murata. The winner of the World Boxing Super Series tournament between George Groves and Callum Smith is also a possibility for GGG.

Jacobs is a low priority for Golovkin, because he already lost to him last year in March and he didn’t bring in many boxing fans. There’s not a lot of interest in a Golovkin vs. Jacobs rematch. A second Golovkin-Jacobs fight will likely play out like the first with Golovkin out-boxing and out-slugging Jacobs to win a 12 round decision.

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Heavyweight contender Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (20-0-1, 18 KOs) weighed in at a career high of 304.4 lbs. and looked good for the weight. Miller’s opponent former heavyweight world title challenger Johann ‘Reptile’ Duhaupas (37-4, 24 KOs) weighed in at 244.2 lbs. The Miller-Duhaupas fight will be the opening fight on Saturday’s HBO card headlined by Jacobs vs. Sulecki.

Miller’s weight is 30 lbs. heavier than the 283 lbs. he weighed for his last fight against former heavyweight world title challenger Mariusz Wach last November on the undercard of Jacobs vs. Luis Arias on HBO Boxing. Despite being huge at 6’4”, 283, Miller complained that he was weak from weight loss. Miller had weighed 298 lbs. in his previous fight against former heavyweight title challenger Gerald Washington in July 2017, and the loss of 15lbs. was too much for him. So, for the Duhaupus fight, Miller bulked up and got his weight over 300 lbs. That’s a lot of weight for a fighter to be carrying around. Miller might have made a mistake in coming in so heavy for the Duhaupas fight. Before this fight, Miller’s highest weight of his career was 298 lbs. that he weighed for his fight against Gerald Washington. At some point, Miller is going to get diminishing returns with him coming in so heavy for his fights. It might be for this fight if he’s not careful.

Miller, 29, has an outside chance of getting a title shot against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs) if he doesn’t face WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder or his WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin.

”I know if they say AJ’s next, I’m coming for you buddy,” Miller said to skysports.com. ”I’m not Deontay Wilder. I’m not Charles Martin. I’m not Breazeale. I will bust your behind. You come to Brooklyn, you better beware. I’m going to kick your butt and send you home with a Brooklyn, hat.”

Miller needs to make sure he doesn’t slip up in this fight and lose, because if Duhaupas pulls off an upset, then ‘Big Baby’ can forget about getting a fight against Joshua anytime soon. Miller will get a title shot against Joshua sooner or later even if he doesn’t face him next. Miller is said to have a co-promotional deal with Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, so that makes a Joshua-Miller fight a lot more likely to take place.

”We have a Plan A and Plan B,” Miller said. ”Plan A is if Eddie Hearn really puts me in the ring with AJ, he gets his money counter, and I knock his behind out.”

Miller goes on to say that the Plan B would be for him to challenge WBA World heavyweight champion Manuel Charr or headlining on HBO.

The 6’5” Duhaupas is a beatable heavyweight for Miller. Duhaupas does well against fringe level heavyweights in the top 15, but he struggles when he has to step up against the top 10 heavyweights. The 37-year-old Duhaupas has lost to Alexander Povetkin, Deontay Wilder, Erkan Teper and Francesco Pianeta. Duhapas, who comes from France, was stopped by Povetkin in the 6th round in December 2016. Since then, Duhaupas has won his last three fights in beating Newfel Ouatah, Evgeny Orlov and Davit Gogishvili. Duhaupas has wins in the past against Robert Helenius and Manuel Charr. Those two are by far the biggest wins of Duhaupas’ 14-year pro career. Three years ago, Duhaupas was stopped in the 11th round by WBC champion Deontay Wilder in September 2015. Duhaupas tried his best, but he couldn’t handle the punching power of Wilder.

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