Perhaps we should switch over to "The Miracle Man" which I think is his preferred moniker now. Danny Jacobs has a nice preamble piece on this FS1 broadcast leading into the fight which begins "I was born in New York City. This is the mecca of boxing-the capital of the world." He says his heroes in boxing were the likes of Roy Jones Junior, Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali. He also says "You can play basketball. You can play volleyball. You can play soccer. But you can't play boxing. You have to fight." and touches on his nightmarish cancer battle with, specifically, osteosarcoma, where he received 25 counts of radiation and was told he'd never box again. He says his biggest motivation to beat it was his drive to become a world champion.
The stare-down during referee instructions is humourous. Lorenzo is exaggeratedly licking his lips like a German Shepherd staring at a baked turkey that's been carelessly set down at his eye level and Danny is looking at him with a polite smirk. He might as well be looking at an annoying bank teller, let alone a guy ready to take his head off. Dave Bontempo muses "Danny Jacobs, not buying into the stare-down there. I guess when you've been fighting cancer, what's a stare-down in the ring? He smiled at him."
In round one, the first serious and arguably most meaningful punch landed in the round is about a minute in, a banging overhand right that lands flush to Lorenzo's face. Jacobs, is thoroughly in control and maintaining any distance he wants. He's throwing a hungry Lorenzo off completely with his movement and also the jab. Jacobs is putting distracting jabs out to the head and body and keeping Lorenzo from setting himself to throw. Jacobs is too quick and too smart through round one. He's coming off slick against Lorenzo, a former Olympian and former world title challenger. This is very good stuff from Jacobs.
In round two, Jacobs' athleticism and ring IQ are in a different league to Lorenzo. Lorenzo is very frustrated here, I think. Jacobs is just preventing Lorenzo from getting into the fight in any way. Jacobs has the head movement, the footwork, everything on Lorenzo. Lorenzo gets warned for a blatant rabbit punch, which is likely a result of pure frustration. As in, if you can't get them clean, get them dirty. He's certainly not getting Jacobs clean. Lorenzo is trying to take Danny's head off, but Danny's head isn't there, to his chagrin. Jacobs didn't throw too much in this round but he still won it, as much as he nullified Lorenzo. I can almost feel Lorenzo's anger at his inability to pin Jacobs down.
In round three, Lorenzo looks to stray low on Jacobs and is called for it. The ref is on the ball here and lets Danny take a moment. It could be further sign of a frustration from Lorenzo, wanting to get Jacobs any way he can, and slow him down, but to me it doesn't really look intentional there. Who knows? Lorenzo, by punch or shove or stumble, I cannot tell, finds himself between the top and second rope. The ref interrupts to make sure he's out before action continues.
Jacobs seems to be offering apology for whatever maneuver put Lorenzo there, so it must not have been clean punching. I think Lorenzo commits another intentional rabbit punch on Jacobs who is tying him up and turning away at the same time. They start brawling as commentator Bernard Hopkins is mentioning a cut under Jacobs' left eye. Jacobs switches from boxing craftily with superb defense to forcefully slugging Lorenzo back to the ropes. It's the first time Lorenzo's been more than fleetingly forced back in the fight, I think. He was stalking up to this point.
Jacobs is all over Lorenzo and his edge in hand speed and his sharp shot selection sees him finish with a face-distorting left and right hook to demolish Lorenzo, falling face first to the canvas. Lorenzo goes down, tries to get up, but he's out of it and the ref knows. It's over. What a finish! Lorenzo gets stopped for the first time in his career. As Jacobs connects with the crowd, Hopkins adds "When Danny realised he was cut, he went into another mindset, and that's the way you do it." The punch stats are very deceptively close. They were actually a perfect example of why punch stats are often awful indicators of what has happened in a match, as counter-intuitively as this may strike some fans.
I am so pleased that Jacobs is a hot prospect again. A great story, a guy with personality who can box with real skill and put your lights out? Terrific. I'm very impressed with this man and think he's a definite player in a rich division. The division he's in is absolutely overflowing with challenges for a young, hungry lion like Jacobs. Good luck to him. This shows me he's ready to jump in with the other top ten men whenever he likes and if we're lucky it'll all be getting appropriate airtime.
PS: This match aired on the nineteenth of August, 2013-I've just received my DVR back to post about this match recently.
Work that bag,
Basement Gym Boxing
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