By Keith Idec
Luis Arias is completely comfortable with his low-profile role entering his fight against Daniel Jacobs.
Arias recognizes that as the “A” side of this promotion and the known middleweight with a new HBO contract, the burden is more on Jacobs than him to win when they meet Saturday night in Uniondale, New York.
“To be honest, all the pressure’s on Jacobs,” Arias said during a recent conference call. “There’s no pressure on me. No one really knows who I am. I’m the young kid from Wisconsin that nobody knows. To the world, everyone thinks I’m coming in to lose. Everyone’s expecting for me to lose, you know, so the pressure’s on him.
“Because even if he looks bad or he’s in a dogfight or he gets put down again, that’s gonna look bad on him. I’ve just gotta come in there and put up a valiant effort. I’m coming in to win the fight, but everyone’s looking at it like I’m coming in to lose. Really, all the pressure’s on him.”
Brooklyn’s Jacobs, 30, will fight for the first time since overcoming a fourth-round knockdown to test undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in a 12-round fight he lost by unanimous decision March 18 at Madison Square Garden. For Milwaukee’s Arias, 27, it’s an opportunity to beat an elite middleweight and move closer to a world title shot.
HBO will televise the 12-round bout between Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) and Arias (18-0, 9 KOs) as the main event of a “World Championship Boxing” tripleheader from Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The HBO broadcast also will feature Brooklyn heavyweight Jarrell Miller (19-0-1, 17 KOs) in a 10-round heavyweight fight against Poland’s Mariusz Wach (33-2, 17 KOs). The telecast will begin at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, when Cletus Seldin (20-0, 16 KOs), an undefeated junior welterweight from Long Island, squares off against Mexico’s Roberto Ortiz (35-1-2, 26 KOs) in a 10-rounder.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.