Danny Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) will be fighting for the first time with his new promoters at Matchroom Boxing against Luis Arias (18-0, 9 KOs) on November 11 on HBO at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. The Jacobs-Arias fight was announced to the public on Tuesday at a press conference in New York City.
Jacobs and Arias will headline the November 11 card on HBO. The co-feature bout is undefeated heavyweight contender Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller (19-0, 17 KOs) fighting 6’7” Mariusz Wach (33-2, 17 KOs) in a 10 round co-feature bout. This will be the first fight for the 29-year-old “Big Baby” Miller on HBO. He obviously is somebody HBO believes in as well. At 6’4”, 300 pounds, Miller will have a tough time panning out.
Miller has power, but he’s slow, and ponderous. Miller will need to find a way to deal with the bigger, stronger and quicker heavyweights like Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua. Miller needs to prove that he can get past Wach, who is plenty big and with respectable power. Against a stationary target like Miller, Wach can pack a wallop.
Jacobs will be in action for the first time for HBO and Matchoom. He signed with both of hem recently. This is the beginning for what Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn hopes will be a beautiful partnership with the 30-year-old Jacobs. The plan is for Jacobs to fight these guys in his next 3 fights:
1. Luis Arias
2. David Lemieux
3. Gennady Golovkin
Hearn wants to have Jacobs fight for a world title in 2018 against GGG. Hopefully, Jacobs isn’t required to face a good fighter like Sergiy Derevyanchenko or Jermall Charlo to get a title shot, because he might lose to both.
Hearn is also interested in matching Jacobs against Saul Canelo Alvarez, but it appears he’s behind Golovkin in the target list for Jacobs. One reason why Hearn wants Golovkin is because he holds a victory over Jacobs from last March. Golovkin is rated as the best fighter in the middleweight division today. Hearn thinks Jacobs deserved the win over Golovkin, but unfortunately, he’s one of the few that believe that. You also have to wonder if Hearn really believes Jacobs deserved the victory over GGG. Is Hearn saying that because he wants to increase the value of his fighter Jacobs by saying he shouldn’t have lost to Golovkin nor does he truly believe that he won that fight? If Hearn does believe Jacobs deserved the win, then he’ll need to be careful, because he’s not seeing his limitations clearly.
Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn believes he can turn the 30-year-old Jacobs into a star in the U.S. It’s not happened thus far for Jacobs during his 10-year pro career. It will be up to Jacobs to prove that Hearn and HBO Boxing made the right decision in signing him to a multi-fight deal. The fact that Jacobs has failed to take his career to the next level after 10 years is a red flag that he’s been held back by the flaws in his game. I’m referring to Jacobs’ punch resistance, and the timid way he fights when he steps it up against good opposition. Jacobs looked afraid in his fight with Pirog and Golovkin. It wasn’t a surprise that he lost both fights, because he seemed gun-shy.
“I’m excited to debut at the Coliseum on November 11 live and exclusive on HBO,” said Jacobs. “We wanted a real fight for the fans and have picked a young hungry lion in Luis Arias. I’m looking to make a real statement on Nov 11 and prove I am number one in this division. Don’t miss it!”
Arias is a very good fighter at 27-years-old. He’s coming off of a career best 5th round knockout win over Arif Magomedov on June 17. Arias looked very smooth, and showed excellent punching power and great body punching. I’m going to go out on the limb right now and pick Arias to upset Jacobs. I’m that high on Arias. I think the guys is easily a top 3 fighter at middleweight. I rate Arias behind only Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Sergiy Derevchenko right now. I think Arias beats Saul Canelo Alvarez, Jacobs, David Lemieux, Billy Joe Saunders and Jermall Charlo right now. The fact that Jacobs is taking a risky fight against Arias suggests that HBO insisted that he take on a dangerous opponent instead of a cream puff. Jacobs has fought a lot of those type of opponents in the last 7 years unfortunately. Jacobs has fought 2 good opponents in the last 7 years in Golovkin and Peter Quillin. The rest of the guys Jacobs has fought have been limited to say the least.
These are the fighters Jacobs has fought since his loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010:
• Gennady Golovkin
• Sergio Mora [twice]
• Peter Quillin
• Caleb Truax
• Jarrod Fletcher
• Milton Nunez
• Giovanni Lorenzo
• Josh Luteran
• Chris Fitzpatrick
• Keenan Collins
• Jose Orta
• Robert Kliewer
I would favor Arias to beat everyone that Jacobs has fought before except for Golovkin and Dmitry Pirog. I think Arias beats Quillin easily and defeats Ishe Smith and Sergio Mora as well.
This is Jacobs’ first fight since his defeat to Golovkin on March 18. Jacobs lost a 12 round unanimous decision. It was a close loss for Jacobs. He’s been complaining ever since, telling the boxing media at every opportunity that he deserved the decision in that fight. I don’t agree that he did deserve it. Golovkin stayed in 2nd gear the entire 12 round fight, jabbing Jacobs and blocking almost everything he threw. A lot of the rounds that the judges gave Jacobs credit for winning, they were rounds were his shots were being picked off on the gloves of GGG. The crowd at Madison Square Garden roared each time the New Yorker Jacobs would throw a punch, making it seem as if he was doing better than he really was. The judges were likely influenced by the boxing fans’ cheers for Jacobs. If you look at the fight closely on replay, Jacobs won only 3 rounds of the 12 rounds unless you want to count hitting gloves as scoring punches. The judging was poor just like it was for the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight. It’s hard to find quality judges in boxing unfortunately.
Jacobs vs. Arias will be shown on HBO World Championship Boxing on November 11. The start time is at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. This is going to be a great fight. I’m hoping that if Jacobs loses a decision, he doesn’t start complaining again like he did after his loss to Triple G. It’s not a good look for Jacobs to not accepting his defeats and giving credit to his conquerors. Even after Jacobs’ knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010, Jacobs complained and said he jumped up and was fine and ready to continue fighting. That was a fight in which Jacobs was laid out on the canvas by Pirog in the 6th. Jacobs had his eyes closed while on his back. He looked unconscious. Of course, with Jacobs looking like he was out cold, referee Robert Byrd
”I thrive in the limelight and look forward to showing the boxing world that I’m a force to be reckoned with on Nov. 11,” said Arias. ”Confidence has always been the key to my success and I know this fight will take my career to the next level.”
