Daniel Jacobs vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Junior in the works or Dec.13

Image: Daniel Jacobs vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Junior in the works or Dec.13
By Boxing News - 09/24/2019 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Former IBF middleweight champion Daniel ‘The Miracle Man’ Jacobs’ next fight has been moved from December 14th to December 13th on DAZN, and his opponent for that date is expected to be Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. There still isn’t a date or a venue for the Jacobs-Chavez Jr. fight.

Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing chose to move him off his originally scheduled December 14th date because he didn’t want him to have to compete with WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford’s title defense against Egidijus Kavaliauskas on the same night on ESPN, according to Dan Rafael. Jacobs’s fight would likely do well even if he stayed on the December 14th date, as Crawford isn’t facing a well known opponent in Kavaliauskas. Nevertheless, Hearn doesn’t want the viewers on DAZN to be negatively impacted by having Crawford fighting on the same night on the ESPN+ app.

Danny Jacobs moving up to 168

Jacobs (35-3, 29 KOs) is moving up to super middleweight after his 12 round unanimous decision loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez earlier this year on May 4th on DAZN. Daniel wants to turn his career around in a new weight class. For the last couple of years, he’d been struggling to make the 160-pound limit at middleweight.

It finally came to a head in his recent contest against the highly popular Canelo Alvarez. Jacobs went through a lot to make weight, and he was fined when he failed to take part in the secondary weigh-in on the morning of the fight.

Jacobs’ power won’t be the same at super middleweight

The drawback in Jacobs moving up to 168 is there aren’t any big names for him to fight in the division. Excluding Canelo, the most popular fighters at super middleweight are these guys: Callum Smith, David Benavidez, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant.

Jacobs vs. Chavez Jr. negotiations are still taking place at this time. On the undercard, WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada will be facing WBA 115-lb champion Kal Yafai in a unification fight. Additionally, former WBO light welterweight champion Maurice Hooker. He recently lost his WBO 140-lb title in a 6th round knockout loss to WBC champion Jose Ramirez.

Jacobs vs. Chavez Jr. not a certainty for December 13

With Chavez Jr. (51-3-1, 33 KOs) being mostly inactive for the last two years, he’s not someone that Jacobs can count on to face him on December 13th. Although the 33-year-old Chavez Jr. recently looked good in emerging from a two-year layoff to defeat journeyman Evert Bravo (25-11-1, 19 KOs) by a 1st round knockout on August 10, he’s too unpredictable to be counted on taking the fight with Jacobs.

Chavez Jr. is still an in demand fighter because of his popularity in Mexico, and he could easily go in another direction if he receives a better offer.

Jacobs could move back down to 160

‘The Miracle Man’ Jacobs hasn’t given up entirely on fighting at middleweight. If a big fight is offered to him against someone like Gennady Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez, Jacobs would likely move back down to 160 to take the match.

The 168-pound weight class might not work out for Jacobs. This is obviously going to be an experiment for Jacobs, because he might not have the chin to deal with the bigger punchers at super middleweight. Once Danny starts getting hit by the big 168-pound fighters like David Benavidez and Callum Smith, he could re-think the wisdom of fight at super middleweight.

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