By Keith Idec
Danny Jacobs accepts that he won’t be considered a legitimate middleweight champion even if he defeats Dmitry Pirog on the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz undercard tonight in Las Vegas.
The talented, undefeated contender from Brooklyn doesn’t necessarily agree with how he knows he’ll be perceived, yet he clearly recognizes that this wasn’t his preferred path to a world title.
He and Pirog will square off for the WBO’s 160-pound crown only because the Puerto Rico-based sanctioning organization stripped Sergio Martinez. With or without the WBO title, the Argentinean southpaw is generally regarded as the middleweight champion after impressively out-pointing Kelly Pavlik three months ago in Atlantic City.
But Jacobs believes he is ready, just 2½ years into his pro career, to beat any middleweight in the world, including Martinez.
“I think it would discredit a lot of people for me to call myself a ‘paper champion,’ ” Jacobs said. “So I definitely will consider myself a champion. And like I’ve said before, if I had an opportunity to take it from Sergio, that’s what I would do.”
A Jacobs-Martinez matchup might not be too far off, especially when you consider the difficulty HBO Sports executives have had putting together a Paul Williams-Martinez rematch and the dearth of marketable American boxers in the middleweight division. First, however, Jacobs must succeed tonight in what should be considered almost as much of a step up in competition for him as it is for Pirog.
Jacobs’ proponents peg Pirog as a protected prospect with a padded record (16-0, 13 KOs). Yet as skilled and powerful as Jacobs is, the four-time New York Golden Gloves champion hasn’t exactly beaten Bernard Hopkins, Marvin Hagler and Carlos Monzon on his way to 20-0, either.
Ishe Smith is the most noteworthy name on the 23-year-old Jacobs’ record, and Smith (21-5, 9 KOs) is a natural welterweight/junior middleweight who usually loses when he faces better opposition.
Pirog, 30, scored his most significant victory over Ghana’s Kofi Jantuah (32-4-1, 21 KOs, 1 NC), a 12-round unanimous decision 13 months ago in Saarland, Germany. His win against Jantuah, also a natural junior middleweight, was Pirog’s lone fight outside of Russia since he made his pro debut in July 2005, and he is extremely eager to make his debut in the United States in the co-feature of a four-fight HBO Pay-Per-View card at the Mandalay Bay Events Center (9 p.m. EDT; $49.95).
In studying Pirog, Jacobs noticed that his opponent boxes more like an American than like a European fighter, an unusual style for Russian boxers. He also determined that Pirog probably isn’t as big a puncher as his knockout ratio (81 percent) might indicate.
“I think his knockouts mostly [are from] an accumulation of punches,” Jacobs said. “I don’t see any big, one-punch-knockout punches.”
Jacobs’ 17 knockouts in 20 fights probably portray him as more of a devastating puncher than he actually is as well, yet there’s no denying that, along with WBC/IBF junior welterweight champion Devon Alexander, he is one of the top two American pros under 25.
The affable Jacobs has star potential and the confidence required to reach it, despite that he has boxed professionally less than half the amount of times Martinez has competed. In fact, Jacobs thought he was ready for a world title fight against someone more accomplished than Pirog after his 17th fight.
“I don’t think that I’m not ready for the situation,” Jacobs said. “I think that I’m very well prepared and that I will hopefully be the victor come [tonight]. … I have the skills, I have the youth and all we had to do was just get a little bit of experience. And with each fight I think I’m getting a little bit more experience, to take it to the next level.”
Pirog figures he, too, has more than enough experience to compete at an elite level, even though it is highly unusual for foes with a combined 36 professional fights to box one another for a recognized world title. They’re competing for the unclaimed WBO belt because Jacobs, the NABO middleweight champion, and Pirog, the WBO’s Asia-Pacific middleweight title-holder, are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the WBO’s 160-pound ratings.
“I don’t think it’s a problem at all,” Pirog said. “We both had [a lot of] amateur experience, we both have the skills and we both have the experience we need for this fight. We’ve both had good fights. Many of the opponents I’ve faced previously thought they were going to defeat me, and I had a record even lower [than 16-0], so I don’t feel that it’s that important. Psychologically, I’m ready for a fight like this, and that’s the most important thing.”
Oscar De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions has unofficially represented Jacobs during his rapid rise to a title fight, expects Jacobs to face his stiffest test since making his pro debut in December 2007.
“Daniel Jacobs has a tremendous style,” De La Hoya said. “He can pick it up whenever he wants. He has the power to knock you out. He has the speed, obviously. He has the intelligence. But Dmitry is a fighter who, before we made this fight, I studied him left and right. He’s a fighter who keeps coming forward, but is very, very smart. He has your typical European come-forward type of attitude, but he’s very, very smart in boxing and I think this fight has ‘fight of the year’ written all over it.”
The Marquez-Diaz rematch seems more likely to vie for “Fight of the Year” honors, which it earned from the Boxing Writers Association of America for 2009. Still, if Jacobs wins in impressive fashion tonight his days of competing in non-main events are probably over for the foreseeable future.
While hyping his readiness for the next level, Richard Schaefer, chief executive officer for Golden Boy Promotions, has mentioned Jacobs as the next in a gifted group of fighters from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
Though respectful of their accomplishments, Jacobs isn’t interested in aligning himself with former heavyweight champions Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Shannon Briggs.
“I’m my own fighter,” Jacobs said. “I want to create a lane for me. If I don’t become the best, if I don’t become the greatest, then so be it.” He’ll be pleased, though, “as long as I make a name for myself and at the end of my career the boxing fans will say, ‘You know what? That Danny Jacobs kid from Brooklyn, he was one of the best in his time.’ ”This
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.