By Charles Brun: In a rare instance in promoter Eddie Hearn criticizing one of his Matchroom fighters, he says neither Daniel Jacobs nor Gabriel Rosado deserved to win their fight last Saturday night on DAZN from Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida.

For the record, former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Jacobs (37-3, 30 KOs) was given the nod on the judges’ scoring in winning a 12 round split decision. Still, the boxing public overwhelmingly disagreed with the results.

On social media, the people were angry with Jacobs, 33, being given a decision over Rosado, who appeared to control the entire fight from start to finish. Charles Brun had Rosado winning nine rounds to three.

The official scores were as follows:

115-113 – Jacobs
115-113 – Jacobs
115-113 – Rosado

Charles Brun had Rosado up by the score 117-111 at the end of the contest, and there was no way that Jacobs deserved to win more than three rounds.

The MC mistake was the highlight of that fight..I felt neither deserved to win! #Jacobsrosado

— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) November 28, 2020

Should DAZN and Hearn part ways with Jacobs?

The question is, will Hearn and DAZN soon be cutting the 33-year-old Jacobs loose from his contract, or will they keep him until it ends? It’s unclear whether DAZN and Matchroom have an escape clause in their contracts with Jacobs, but if so, it might be a good idea for them to use it.

What we’ve seen from Jacobs in his last two fights against Rosado and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is a fighter who no longer has it. Jacobs isn’t the same fighter he was a decade ago when he knocked everybody out and was very busy inside the ring. Now Jacobs looks old and feeble.

If they’re going to keep Jacobs around until his contract expires, they need to stop him from facing second-tier fighters and put him in with one of the world champions at 168.

As we saw last Saturday night, it’s too risky for Hearn and DAZN to let Jacobs continue to fight guys like Rosado because eventually, the judges will get it right, and he’ll get beaten.

Once that happens, Matchroom and DAZN will have a tainted fighter on their hands. That’s why it would be a good idea for Hearn to look to cash out with Jacobs in his next bout by throwing him in with WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, who would do well against him.

I would say let Jacobs fight IBF champion Caleb Plant, but he’s not one of DAZN’s fighters, so that would make it tricky to try and put that fight together. If Hearn is going to cash out with Jacobs, putting him in with one of these fighters would be good:

Gennadiy Golovkin
Billy Joe Saunders
Caleb Plant
David Benavidez
Edger Berlanga

Jacobs would likely lose to all of those guys by knockout, but at least Hearn and DAZN would get one last fight out of him before his contract ends.

To the scorecards we go.

How do you have it? #JacobsRosado

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) November 28, 2020

Jacobs: I didn’t think it was that close

“I don’t think I did the best performance; I felt like I could have done a little bit better,” Jacobs said moments after the fight. “The atmosphere was a little bit weird, no fans, nothing to pump you up, but it’s my fault. I had a great camp.

“Obviously, I didn’t show everything I needed to. My corner was obviously instructing me from my corner, but I guess I was looking for shots to load up. I was looking for the right hand, and I saw that was susceptible every time he would go down, I would land the right.

“So I guess I got right-hand happy, but I should have formulated the game plan and stuck to it, but I live to see another day. I got a split decision. He’s a game opponent. I didn’t think it was that close by far, but me being a little bit stagnant made it a close decision.

“I wanted to feel him out and see what kind of game plan he was going for,” Jacobs said when asked about why he was doing little early in the fight. “At the same time, in the beginning, I wanted to pop my jab and get acclimated and get my rock star on and get moving and get loose.

“At the same time, I guess I let rounds slip through the bag, and in the judges’ opinions, it was closer than I anticipated. But I had good communication with my corner in between rounds, and they were letting me know that I was winning rounds.

“So I guess I got to go back to the tape and back to the drawing boards and apply a better effort next time around,” said Jacobs.

It sounds like Jacobs is out of touch with the reality of what happened last Friday night. Jacobs has lost something from his game from the punishment he took against Gennadiy Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez.

Danny would have lost every round to Canelo in 2019 if the Mexican star hadn’t gassed out after six rounds. Canelo was pitching a shutout after the first half of the contest, but then he faded and let Jacobs win rounds in the second part of the fight by default.

Jacobs was no busier than he was against Rosado, but Canelo was too tired to throw. The last time we saw a prime Jacobs was against GGG in 2017 in losing a 12 round decision.

In Jacobs’ fights since then against Maciej Sulecki, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Luis Arias, Chavez Jr, and Rosado, he’s looked like the shadow of his former self. Jacobs deserved a loss to Derevyanchenko, and he was getting beaten by Sulecki as well.

After those performances, you have to wonder what was DAZN and Matchroom thinking when they decided to sign Jacobs. It was painfully obvious from those fights that Jacobs doesn’t have anything left after the beating he took against Golovkin.

Daniel Jacobs blames lack of crowd for bad performance

“To apply more effort, to put that grit inside,” Jacobs said when asked what his cornerman was telling him in between rounds.

“I guess I was treating it like a sparring match more than an actual fight, and that’s my bad. I apologize to all the fans who expected a more action-packed, jam-packed fight, but there’s always next time, and I’m looking forward to bigger and better things.

“100 percent,” said Jacobs when asked if his fight with Rosado showed that he’s ready to take on one of the world champions at 168.

“A fight like this is only for a stepping stone, and it allowed me to see that I got more to apply when I’m inside that ring, but I still feel like there’s more to me that hasn’t yet been seen. But this wasn’t a valiant effort from myself.

“It felt kind of dry, I’m not going to lie to you,” Jacobs said when asked if he was affected by fighting without a crowd.

“Even though I had a clear understanding of what my corner was saying, I could hear a little more clear, but it felt a little bit weird.

“It felt like a boxing sparring match inside the gym. But it’s no excuse; I’m a professional. I didn’t give my best effort, but my effort was enough to give me the victory, and I look forward to next time giving the fans a better show,” said Jacobs.

Sadly, Jacobs is blaming the lack of a crowd for his subpar performance last night instead of looking in the mirror and owning it. This wasn’t the first time that Jacobs has fought this way.

He did the same thing against Canelo Alvarez, Derevyanchenko, and Sulecki, and should have lost all three of those fights.