By Dan Ambrose: Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergiy ‘The Technician’ Derevyanchenko has been moved to October 27 at Madison Square Garden Theater in New York, according to ESPN.
This is a 50-50 fight. Jacobs is a good fighter with an excellent pedigree, but he’s not looked like the same fighter he once was since his fight against Gennady Golovkin last year.
The GGG-Jacobs fight last year appears to have taken a lot out of Jacobs, even though he spent most of the contest running from GGG. When Jacobs stopped running in the second half of the fight, he took some heavy shots from Golovkin and wound up getting staggered in the 10th. Jacobs’ face was badly swollen by the end of the contest from Golovkin’s powerful jab and heavy hands. In Jacobs’ two fights since the GGG fight, he’s looked lackluster in beating Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki. Jacobs barely beat junior middleweight Sulecki by a 12 round last April. Jacobs was hit a lot in that fight by Sulecki. It was a good thing for Jacobs that Sulecki isn’t a big puncher because he would have likely been knocked out. Sulecki took the fight to Jacobs the entire 12 round fight, and put hands on him. There was no escaping Sulecki’s pressure no matter how badly Jacobs tried to get away from him. Jacobs was forced to stand and fight Sulecki, and he barely got the win. The judge’ scores were way out of line from the fight that took place inside the ring. At best, Jacobs won by two rounds over the younger 28-year-old Sulecki. If the two were to have a rematch now, there’s a good chance that Sulecki would win.
Derevyanchenko is a bigger puncher than Sulecki, and he’s just as good as him at pressuring his opponents. That means that Jacobs is going to need to be willing to stand and fight Derevyanchenko on October 27 if he wants to win this fight because he’s not going to be able to run his way to a decision.
It’s a small venue for a good fight, but the management is likely expecting a smaller crowd for this type of match-up. Jacobs, 31, is the only draw here. The 32-year-old Ukrainian born Derevyanchenko is still an unknown with the casual boxing fans in the U.S. Jacobs is only popular with hardcore boxing fans and a smatter of casual fans in the New York area. He’s not a huge star. Jacobs had a chance to making a name for himself in his fight against Gennady Golovkin last year in March, but he blew it by fighting too defensively and not letting his hands go. It was not the type of performance from Jacobs that won over boxing fans.
Jacobs and Derevyanchenko will be fighting for the vacant International Boxing Federation middleweight crown that was stripped from Gennady Golovkin on June 6 after he failed to agree to defend against his IBF mandatory Derevyanchenko. Golovkin couldn’t make the defense against Derevyanchenko, which the IBF wanted him to make by August 4, because he was still in negotiations with Golden Boy Promotions for a September 15 rematch against Saul Canelo Alvarez.