WBA (reg) 160 lb champion Daniel Jacobs (29-1, 26ko) returns to the ring on Saturday on the Garcia/Malignaggi PBC on ESPN undercard in New York, looking to make a statement and be the first man to stop former Contender winner and WBC 154 lb champ Sergio Mora (28-3-2, 9ko).
The 34 year old “Latin Snake” only holds 9kos from 28 wins and was showing serious signs of decline in his last fight in February, tasting the canvas and making hard work of defeating Abraham Han by 12 round SD.
Conversely, the big hitting Jacobs stopped the durable Caleb Truax back in April in the final round of the scheduled 12, and is looking to do the same to Mora on Saturday, facing what will arguably be a career best opponent since his 2010 loss to Russia’s Dmitry Pirog – who later retired from the sport undefeated through injury.
“There’s not a lot of fear as far as power is concerned but what he lacks there he makes up for in his craftiness, his slickness and his awkwardness – and sometimes he does engage in the action as well,” Jacobs said to assembled media earlier this week.
“The test with Sergio Mora is whether he can be stopped or whether or not I can go the distance with him. He’s never been stopped before so it will be icing on the cake to be able to not only to defeat him but to stop him.
“I feel like I have a lot more advantages than he does in the fight. But whatever my advantages are and whatever gets me going will be the deciding factor for me & I will stick to it.
“So if it’s my speed, then I’ll stick to using my speed. If it’s my power, backing him down, showing him what a real middleweight feels like, then that’s what I will do.”
Jacobs will remain mandatory challenger to WBA (super) belt holder Gennady Golovkin with victory, although with the Kazakh set to fight IBF champ David Lemieux in October, a fight with WBA (interim) champion Chris Eubank Jr (Jacob’s mandatory) would also appeal, although how quickly that fight could be put together unless ordered at the moment is unclear.
Eubank Jr hasn’t boxed since stopping Dmitry Chudinov back in February.
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