Jacobs dominates snoozer
By Jason Gonzalez
For the second time in four months, the Nassau Coliseum played host to the “Sweet Science.” The 31-year-old drought came to a halt last summer, when Robert Guerrero faced Omar Figueroa in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card. In its second go-around at the historic venue, Brooklyn native and cancer survivor Danny Jacobs won a lopsided unanimous decision over Luis Arias, in his first fight back since dropping a close decision to Gennady Golovkin at Madison Square Garden. In defeat, Jacobs earned a great deal of respect and admiration from the general public for being the first fighter to end Golovkin’s streak of consecutive knockouts at 23.
The scorecards read 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109 in favor of Jacobs, who scored a knockdown in the 11th round when Arias’ glove touched the canvas.
“I was trying to go for the knockout, but I’ve been out nine months and I was a little rusty,” said Jacobs, who improved to 33-2, (29). “He was a crafty guy. Much respect to his team.”
However, there was still one more sub-plot that revolved around the show that may have possibly been overlooked. Jacobs, who is advised by Al Haymon, recently signed a promotional pact with the British based promoter Eddie Hearn. Ultimately, this was Hearn’s American promotional debut.
A little over 6,000 fans witnessed a glorified sparring match. For all of the talking that Arias (18-1, 9 KOs) did leading up to the fight, he sure failed to back it up. Arias grabbed and held onto Jacobs for about the entire night.
As a result of Arias being so conservative, his offense was immensely hindered. Arias attributed his less than stellar performance to two factors. Arias claimed that Jacobs was too big on fight night, and he had a bad blister on his right foot. Ironically, Arias said that he didn’t have any excuses for losing.
The possibility of Jacobs fighting again in March or April was put out there.
“I want to stay active,” Jacobs said. “We have major plans.”
Heavyweight Jarrell Miller (20-0-1, 18 KOs) of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn stopped the Polish Mariusz Wach (33-2, 17 KOs) in the ninth round of a fight that was fought at the speed of molasses.
Both Miller and Wach looked like they were fighting in a tough man competition. Both fighters lacked the skills to compete on a grand stage.
“I didn’t feel right in there,” said Miller. “This is the lightest [weight] I have been in a while. I dropped weight because of you guys [media] saying that it wasn’t good for me. But I am at my best when I am 290.”
Junior welterweight Cletus “The Hebrew Hammer” Seldin of Shirley, Long Island pulverized his Roberto Ortiz of Mexico. Seldin dropped Ortiz twice in the first round. When the second frame commenced, Seldin opened up a bad cut over his foes left eye. The fight concluded in the third round at the 2:43 mark. With the “W” Seldin upped his ledger to 21-0, (17).
In other news, Hearn informed the media that his pupil Anthony Joshua is vacationing in Dubai. He also mentioned that he had breakfast with Shelly Finkel, the manager of Deontay Wilder. Apparently the negations for the super fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder have officially begun. Hearn described the informal discussion as “optimistic”.
Rumor has it that both Joshua and Wilder will headline a future event together, probably in March, against other opponents. Assuming that both Wilder and Joshua win, the pair would then meet up a few months later in either June or July.
As for a location, Hearn said that the mega fight will either be held in the states or in the United Kingdom.
SecondsOut Weekly Newsletter
Permission Statement
If you accept, we will process your data to fulfil this purpose.
