By Ryan Songalia (Photo by Cespedes Studios)
It seems like just yesterday that Danny Jacobs was the national amateur boxing "Golden Child". Now with a golden child of his own, the 23-year-old Jacobs is a man trying to find the balance between achieving professional boxing success and family life.
"To my surprise, having a son was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me in life," says Jacobs, 19-0 (16 KO), about his one-and-a-half year old son Nathaniel Jacobs. "It's way better than boxing. Boxing comes and goes but this is my baby. I was a young dad, had my son at 21 but I think it kind of matured me as a man and made me put things in the proper perspective."
The birth of young Nathaniel coincided with his 2008 bout on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar de la Hoya super-fight. Jacobs' girlfriend gave birth the Wednesday before his fight with Victor Lares. Jacobs was at the airport a half hour after she gave birth on his way to Las Vegas. He won by second round TKO.
While most fathers slow down once they have children, Jacobs of Brooklyn, New York is still a young man working hard to make his dreams come true. The former four-time NY Golden Gloves champion fought 12 times in 2008 and 5 times in 2009, which translated to a lot of time in training camp away from home.
For his last fight, a first-round stoppage of Jose Rodriguez Berro in March, Jacobs spent eight weeks in Houston preparing for the fight. He says that camp was particularly hard for him.
"When I left he was crawling and when I came back he was walking. It's the little things that you miss. I know at the end of the day it's all worth it because my main goal is to make his childhood and his future bright."
Jacobs is currently preparing for his next assignment, this Saturday night at The Theater at Madison Square Garden against Juan Astorga on the undercard of the Amir Khan-Paulie Malignaggi WBA junior welterweight title fight. It's only his second time fighting in his hometown and first since November of 2008.
The main and co-main events (featuring Victor Ortiz vs. Nate Campbell) will be televised by HBO's "Boxing After Dark" (9:45 PM ET/PT). Jacobs' fight will not be televised but highlights of his bout will be aired.
This training camp has been much easier to deal with for Jacobs. Jacobs & team relocated their camp to the Fernwood Hotel and Resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, which is about a two hour drive from Brooklyn. Jacobs makes the drive every Sunday on his day off to see his son, which he says is better than the Skype communication they had gotten used to.
Jacobs did get to spend significant time at home with his son - about six months worth to be exact - though it was under unfavorable circumstances. Jacobs damaged ligaments in the third knuckle on his left hand during his HBO-televised fight with Ishe Smith. After having surgery to repair it, Jacobs had to work hard to regain confidence in his hand again.
"My first time back in sparring I was kinda hesitant to let it go with full force," Jacobs admits. "We've been patching the left hand up with tremendous care and focusing on building it up. I'm working on not allowing myself to be gunshy with my left hand."
Andre Rozier, who co-trains Jacobs alongside Victor Roundtree, says the problem arose when they switched to Everlast's new glove model. He says a big part of their recovery has been mind of matter.
"We don't talk about it [in the gym]. The less you speak about a subject, the less you have to worry about concentrating on it. After the conclusion of a healing process, to harp on it only gives you a bad consciousness about what might have taken place."
Since the Smith fight, chatter about Jacobs has died down significantly. It's understandable, considering that Jacobs looked less-than-stellar against a smaller, if more experienced opponent and hasn't fought on TV since. In boxing, where you're only as good as your last fight, this is only to be expected.
"The world of boxing is very fliggity jiggity," says Rozier. "One minute you're hot and the next you're not. No matter what, say you don't have the best of days, they will tell you that. I'm not a big fan of the UFC but their fans love them win, lose or draw. Boxing fans, it's like we have a bunch of nanny goats running around. They wanna baaa when things are good and booo when things are bad."
Jacobs takes the criticism in stride.
"To be totally honest, I could really care less what the people really expect from me because I always go out there and give my all. I don't really worry about what the people think. Mostly I just want to go out there and give a good show, even if I get hit. This is boxing, you're going to get hit and you're going to hit back. I just try to give the best showing each time."
Though only a pro for about two years, Jacobs is eager to step up to the championship level within the next year. With Arthur Abraham moving fighting at super-middleweight and Kelly Pavlik likely joining him soon, the division is suddenly less-imposing and ripe for the taking.
Rozier acknowledges that much, but is content to take his time in assessing the situation.
"I'm taking a real good look at what's going on. I'm looking at one or two more performances before looking in the next directions. The way the waters are now it's a good time to take a step up and look for one of the titles.
"Right now [WBC/WBO middleweight champion Sergio Martinez] is at the top of the mountain. Nobody wants to really mess with him. Then we go to [IBF champion Felix Sturm]. Felix is someone that I think that Danny could do very well against. I haven't seen the German kid [IBF champion Sebastian Sylvester], but from what I'm hearing that would be the path we could take to bring the championship back to America."
Jacobs' opponent Astorga is 31, holds a record of 14-4-1 (9 KO) and all of his defeats have come via knockout. His last fight, in January against John Duddy, was a knockout loss in under two minutes. In the near future Jacobs might have to go a few rounds and test out his repaired left hand in the heat of combat.
It won't be Saturday night.
"That's not my way of going about things in boxing," says Rozier. 'I don't want him in there one second more than he needs to be. I want this dude out of there in the first round. No respect, no pity, no mercy. You don't get paid overtime so why spend more time than is necessary performing?" -RS
Khan Adviser Asif Vali Says Visa Issues Are No Issue
More than a few people held their breaths when WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan was initially denied a visa to enter America for his May 15 clash with former champ Paulie Malignaggi at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. For 11 days the situation was in limbo before Khan was issued a work visa by the British consulate in Vancouver, Canada this past Friday.
Asif Vali, Khan's legal adviser, says the situation was nothing but a minor inconvenience.
"There has been no difference in training while he was waiting for his visa," says Vali. "[Trainer] Freddie Roach has been there, [strength & conditioning coach] Alex Ariza has been there. His sparring partners have been there. He's had a little bit of a change of scenery which is good for him."
Team Khan have been staying busy at Vancouver's Sugar Ray's Boxing Gym. Aside from the gym's busy hours interrupting camp from time to time, Khan has been benefiting from Vancouver's low-key media attention as compared to what he would encounter in New York City.
"It's always going to be helpful when you can concentrate on your training and obviously you're going somewhere where only the boxing people know him. Of course it's been helpful."
Team Khan is due to arrive in New York City on Sunday night.
Ryan Songalia is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. An archive of his work can be found at www.ryansongalia.com . You can contact him via email at ryan@ryansongalia.com and follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/ryansongalia .
