Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn has his fingers crossed that his new signee won’t slip on a banana skin this Saturday night against unbeaten Luis Arias (18-0, 9 KOs) in their fight at middleweight on HBO. Hearn sees Arias with nothing to lose in this fight, and everything to gain.
Hearn is worried that Arias could get Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) into a dog fight and somehow beat him, which would ruin the plans that he has for him to fight the winner of the December 16 fight between WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders and David Lemieux. Hearn wants the winner of that fight followed by a fight in the spring against either middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez.
Arias is a different type of fighter compared to the guys that Jacobs has been fighting recently. Arias is more of an attacker, and he’s going to make Jacobs fight him. Golovkin didn’t look to brawl with Jacobs, so he didn’t test his chin the way that many boxing fans thought he would. The last guy that took the fight to Jacobs was Peter Quillin, who he stopped in the 1st round in 2015.
Quillin had always had a shaky chin from the start of his career, so it was a foolish mistake for him to take the fight with Jacobs. However, if Quillin had been able to take Jacobs’ shots, he probably would have beaten him. Arias hasn’t shown to have a chin issue. That means that if Jacobs is going to beat him, he’s going to need to eat a lot of his big punches for 12 rounds.
If Jacobs gets hit long enough by Arias, he may go down like he did in his knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010. Hearn doesn’t realize that Jacobs has issues with his ability to absorb punishment. If Jacobs could take a good shot, he wouldn’t have ran from Golovkin for most of the fight and ruined his chances to win the fight.
Jacobs is Hearn’s new project, who he is hoping he can turn into a big star in the U.S. Hearn sees Jacobs as the most talented, and the biggest puncher in the 160 lb. division. Hearn not only wants to turn Jacobs into a 4-belt unified champion at middleweight, but he also thinks he can turn him into a big star in the U.S. That’s going to be easier said than done, as Jacobs has never been that kind of talent that he would need to be for him to become a huge star in America. Jacobs’ loss to Dmitry Pirog was a clear sign that he doesn’t have the talented needed for him to get to the next level. Golovkin fought like he was in 1st gear for 12 rounds against Jacobs, and yet he still beat him.
Jacobs and Arias will be fighting on HBO Championship Boxing at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
”There’s lots of pressure to win, for Danny, and to look good, to make a statement at 160,” said Hearn to RingTV.com. ”And with (David) Lemieux versus (Billy Joe) Saunders coming up, you have another potential foe for him.”
Hearn has some competition for wanting to get the winner of the Lemieux vs. Saunders fight. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is especially interested in having his flagship fighter Canelo Alvarez fight Lemieux next on May 5 on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. Canelo vs. Lemieux would be on HBO PPV. De La Hoya needs Lemieux to win that fight for him to potentially shove Golovkin aside for a while to make the Canelo-Lemieux fight instead. The boxing world wants to see Canelo fight Golovkin next in May, but Canelo and Golden Boy seem to be leaning in the direction of fighting Lemieux next in May.
It’s easy money in the bank for Canelo. It’s not easy fight, but it clearly is the far easier fight than a rematch with Golovkin. Golovkin has the power and the boxing skills to always give Canelo tremendous problems no matter how many times the two fighters face each other. Golovkin just looks like he’s a little better than Canelo.
“I’m quite nervous about the Arias fight,” Hearn said. “Arias has nothing to lose, you talk to him, it’s clear, it’ll be bombs away, a war.”
Arias would be a problem for Jacobs no matter what the situation. It’s not just about Arias having nothing to lose. It’s more of a case of Arias being a talented fighter, and Jacobs having a chin that has been proven to be fragile over his career. Jacobs is in his 30s no, and he’s not been the most active of fighters lately. Jacobs hasn’t been fighting a lot, and the opposition he’s been fighting hasn’t always been the best.
Jacobs started his pro career 10 years ago as a highly hyped fighter for Golden Boy Promotions in 2007. It looked like in the early part of Jacobs’ career that he was going to go on to become a huge star in boxing and a world champion. Jacobs did win a world title, but he didn’t beat anyone of note to become a champion. Jacobs also didn’t hold onto his title for long. He was beaten by Golovkin by a 12 round decision last March after 3 uneventful years as the WBA 160 lb. ‘regular’ belt holder. Jacobs’ successful title defenses came against Sergio Mora [x 2], Peter Quillin and Caleb Truax. Before that, Jacobs was knocked out in the 5th round by Dmitry Pirog in 2010.
“Would Jacobs be next for the winner? I think in an ideal world, yes, in March or April,” said Hearn in talking about Jacobs possibly fighting the winner of the Saunders vs. Lemieux fight. ”And then the winner of the Canelo-GGG rematch at the end of the year.”
Lemieux would be a very hard fight for Jacobs. Hearn would probably do better to steer Jacobs away from Lemieux, because he wouldn’t be able to avoid getting hit for the full 12 rounds. Jacobs’ chin has been dented by guys that didn’t have anywhere near the same kind of power that Lemieux possesses.
On the undercard of Jacobs-Arias this Saturday night is heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller fighting former heavyweight world title challenger Mariusz Wach in a fight that could lead to a title shot for “Big Baby” against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Hearn just signed Miller to a co-promotional deal, and he’s already talking of wanting to match him against Joshua potentially in 2018.