Daniel Jacobs A True Miracle Man

Daniel Jacobs truly lived up to his nickname “The Miracle Man”, on Saturday night he became a 2 time world champion after surviving cancer. So this week I thought I’d look back at his inspirational story.

After a stunning amateur career he made his professional debut on the undercard of Mayweather V Hatton in Las Vegas on the 8th December 2007. A fight he won with a knockout off a huge left hook in the opening round. He then went on to win his next 19 fights, 17 of those wins came by knockout. That incredible winning streak meant that he fought his way into a world title shot against Dmitry Pirog for the then vacant WBO Middleweight title. This was a great fight with Jacob’s boxing really well against an awkward opponent before he was caught with a perfectly timed counter right hand which wiped him out. However at the time of the knockout Jacobs was up on all 3 of the judges’ cards 37-39.

He came back to the ring in December 2010 when he took on Jesse Orta in Canada a fight he won with a 5th round stoppage. His career looked to be back on track when he knocked out Robert Kliewer in the opening round in March 2011. He looked back on course to be back in the world title picture very soon. Then disaster struck when in May 2011 he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma a severe and life threatening form of bone cancer.

Many people thought that this diagnosis would mean the end of his boxing career it may have even been the end of his life. Even though he made a miraculous full recovery, he was told by all his doctors that he would never be able to box again, but he wouldn’t take that for an answer just 19 months after his diagnosis he was back in the ring.

On the 29th October 2012 came his comeback in front of his hometown crowd at The Barclays Centre in Brooklyn New York when he took on Josh Lutheran. He made his comeback in spectacular fashion as he scored an opening round knockout. He then went on a 4 fight winning streak all of those wins came by knockout.

On the 9th August 2014 against all the odds he got another shot at the world title when he took on Jarrod Fletcher for the vacant WBA Middleweight title. This was a fight that Daniel Jacobs completely dominated from start to finish hurting and sending Fletcher to the canvas in the very first round, he continued to show his silky boxing skills throughout the fight putting Fletcher down again in the 5th round to score the knockout victory, with this win he finally became a world champion.

He went on to make 4 successful title defences before he got the chance to unify the devision when he took on the Middleweight king Gennady Golovkin. On the 18th March 2017 these two Middleweight world champions went to war. It was a close fight with the fight going one way then the other it was a thrilling 12 rounds with Golovkin winning a unanimous decision 114-113,115-112 and 115-112 on the judges’ cards. Although Golovkin won the fight many people including me had Jacobs winning the fight. I scored the fight 115-112 to Jacobs.

After the loss to Golovkin Jacobs continued to take hard fights against Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki winning both of those fights by unanimous decision. Winning both of those fights combined with the display he put in against Gennady Golovkin put him in the position to once again fight for a world title.

This past Saturday he stepped in the ring with the undefeated Sergiy Derevyanchenok who also happened to be Jacobs former sparring partner for the vacant IBF Middleweight title, before the fight many people where predicting an early knockout for Jacobs. However what they got was something completely different. Although every round of the fight was close and difficult to score most of the quality punches came from Jacobs, he also dropped Derevyanchenok in the opening round but it was more of a flash knockdown. At the final bell the judges scored the fight a split decision 113-114 to Derevyanchenok and 115-112 to Jacobs on the other two, to crown him a world champion once again.

As you can see Daniel Jacobs is a true miracle man please comment below and let me know who you would like to see Jacobs fight next?