Daniel Jacobs and John Ryder will fight February 12 at a London venue famous for hosting the PDC World Darts Championships each year.
BoxingScene.com has learned that London’s Ryder and Brooklyn’s Jacobs will headline a card that night at Alexandra Palace, a sports and entertainment venue better known among Brits as “Ally Pally.” BoxingScene.com first reported recently that Jacobs and Ryder would fight February 12 in London.
Brooklyn’s Jacobs will end a 14-month layoff when he encounters Ryder, a southpaw, in their 12-round super middleweight bout.
Jacobs, who will turn 35 on February 3, scored a controversial split-decision victory over Philadelphia’s Gabriel Rosado in their 12-round super middleweight match a year ago at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Jacobs (37-3, 30 KOs) beat Rosado (26-14-1, 15 KOs, 1 NC) on two scorecards (115-113, 115-113, 113-115), but he was heavily criticized for what was widely viewed as an apathetic performance by the former IBF middleweight champion.
Jacobs didn’t engage during much of a closely contested fight, despite that he and Rosado talked a lot of trash during the buildup toward it.
The 33-year-old Ryder has won back-to-back bouts since he surprisingly tested former WBA super middleweight champion Callum Smith in a November 2019 fight at Echo Arena in Smith’s hometown of Liverpool, England. Ryder sought a rematch, but Smith lost that WBA belt to Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez a year later at Alamodome in San Antonio.
Most recently, Ryder (30-5, 17 KOs) stopped Slovakia’s Jozef Jurko (8-4, 6 KOs) in the fifth round September 10 in Klagenfurt, Austria. In the fight immediately after Ryder lost a 12-round unanimous decision to England’s Smith (28-1, 20 KOs), Ryder went the distance with Mike Guy (13-7-1, 6 KOs), an American opponent who dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to Ryder last December 18 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
