(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) The co-featured bout at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY wasn’t even minutes old before Daniel Jacobs 29-1-0 caught Sergio Mora with a short counter right. The punch landed on the button as Mora’s head was down and to his left. He had just finished landing a left to Jacob’s right side. It looked like Jacobs was going to have a easy night of it. Mora beat the count but looked a little shook as the referee Gary Rosato signaled for action to resume. Jacobs jumped on Mora with hard shots, but in the process he squared up and left himself open. Mora caught him with a good left hook, and down went Jacobs and up out of their seats came the crowd. Wow! What a beginning!
The first round ended with matching knockdowns, a tough round to score. The second round action had both men throwing a lot of jabs and combinations. The light punching Mora seemed to be holding his own, but it was obvious Jacobs was throwing the harder punches. Soon he had Mora on the run. Mora tried to shift his stance to give Jacobs angles, but his moves were awkward and ineffective. Jacobs was determined to close in and finish the job.
The end came when Mora was attempting to move to his right. Jacobs had just finished throwing a combination and started another. Mora ducked under a Jacob’s right. It looked as though the punch missed Mora’s head, but Jacobs’ momentum carried him forward into the crouched over Mora. It was then Mora’s right ankle rolled over and “popped” on him. Referee Rosato moved him to administer a count, believing a legitimate knockdown had occurred.
Mora grimaced in pain as he tried to stand. The referee asked if he could continue. Thinking Mora wanted to continue, Rosato signaled action should resume. He then took another look at Mora. It was obvious Mora was in a lot of pain and he stumbled about in an attempt to stay off his right foot. Referee Rosato felt Mora said he could no longer continue, so he stopped the fight. Officially, it goes in the books as a TKO at 2:55 of the second round.
In a way, the ending is reminiscent of the Bernard Hopkins vs Chad Dawson fight. Initially, the fight was deemed a TKO loss for Hopkins, because he told referee Pat Russell that he could not continue. Hopkins claimed he injured his shoulder when being tossed into the ropes and ring apron by Dawson. Referee Russell initially ruled because there was no foul, accidental or otherwise, that he had no choice but to rule the fight ended because of Hopkins refusal to continue. Later, the TKO was changed to NC due to accidental injury at 2:48 of the second round.
Mora might be able to make an argument that that is what happened in the second round of his fight with Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs. The difference is Mora was injured while under attack. Despite that, Mora can argue that he didn’t go down as the result of a punch. Rather, he fell to the canvas when his ankle rolled over. Mora can argue that he too, just as Hopkins, could not continue because of an accidental injury.
In the post fight interview, Mora lamented that he was entitled to a rematch. When Jacobs heard that, he said there would be no rematch. He explained that he is not going backwards. If the boxing commission rules the bout a NC, they along with the wBA could order a rematch. As usual the possibility of Jacobs vs Peter “Kid Chocolate” should become a reality. Both Jacobs and Quillen are agreeable to the fight. It would be another battle of Brooklynites and fill up Barclays. It would be an interesting matchup.
In the main event, Danny “Swift” Garcia dismantled Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi. No surprise there. Danny had everything his way. He gradually beat down the courageous Malignaggi. and by 2:22 of the ninth round referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. had seen enough. It was obvious Paulie had no chance of winning the fight. When the end became official, Paulie started a “hug fest”. First, he hugged Danny and shared his feelings while they were in each other’s clutches. Then Paulie hugged Angel Garcia. Then he moved on to share squeezes with anyone who stood still long enough for him to glom on to them.
Paulie’s right eye was damaged both above and below, but it did not keep Paulie from chattering on about what his strategy had been and how Garcia kept him from carrying it out. He thought the fight was about 70/30 in Garcia’s favor. There were times when he thought the fight might turn his way, but for the most part Garcia stayed on track and controlled things for the majority of each round. The few power shots Paulie threw were not enough to shake up Garcia or get him out of his rhythm. Paulie was able to make Garcia miss with a lot of punches, but the ones that landed were sufficient to get the job done.
Garcia’s venture into the welterweight division went as expected. Danny explained that he felt he would be stronger, and because making weight was not a factor, he would be able to devote more time to strategy and the game plan. What’s or who is next? For Paulie (33-7-0 7KO), four of those seven losses have come by way of kayo, so Paulie’s got enough brain concussing and scar tissue to warrant retirement. For Danny (31-0-0 18KO) Keith “One Time” Thurman or Shawn “Showtime” Porter sound interesting. Once again things are in the hands of Al Haymon.