By Ted Sares – Being backed by one of the best managers in the business and having Golden Boy behind me is great… –Jacobs
A lot of “famous” people come from a gritty section of Brooklyn known as Brownsville–from Aaron Copland to John Gotti and a whole lot of others in between. At one time, it was one of New York City’s most infamous slums. However, when it comes to boxers, there must be something in the water that inspires them. Many notable ex-fighters come from Brownsville including Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe, Floyd Patterson, and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Also included are Zab and Daniel Judah, Shannon Briggs, Junior Jones, and Mark Breland. The latest is streaking Daniel Jacobs. As an amateur, he won his fourth New York Daily News Golden Gloves championship (one short of Mark Breland’s great record). In all, he recorded 137 wins and 7 losses and was an amatuer legend.
Dmitriy “Star of David” Salita keeps things ethnic as he too makes this area his home base by way of Odessa in the Ukraine. This light welterweight has streaked to a 30-0-1 mark..
“The Golden Child”
Known as “The Golden Child,” Danny fights like anything but as he has racked up a 17-0 mark and an impressive 88.24 KO percentage. Already, this talented fighter has worked in eight different states and is fast becoming a fan-favorite, though for some inexplicable reason ESPN Commentator Teddy Atlas seems bent on criticizing him. I say inexplicable because Atlas seems to be more persistent about his criticisms than seems warranted. While I tend to agree with Teddy that Jacob’s’ power might be overrated, I adamantly believe he is a hard puncher that is capable of breaking down and stopping opponents. I also think he has far more power than Atlas gives him credit for.
In fact, Teddy once stated that Jacobs was not a one-punch knockout fighter and exactly one second later, Danny sent Jose “Terrible” Varela (23-5 coming in) to dreamland with a straight right. Atlas has also criticized the pace at which Jacobs has been brought along and building his undefeated record against soft opposition, but a review of his opponents discloses that ten had winning records coming in. More to the point, his last two were very durable veterans in Michael “Midnight Stalker” Walker (19-1-2) and George “Blaze” Walton (20-3). Maybe what Teddy didn’t like was the fact that early in his progression, Jacobs won 7 fights all by KO in just 11 rounds.
Against the aptly named and tenacious “Stalker,” Jacobs won a UD going away, and in the process, got valuable rounds in. He also displayed his considerable ring smarts when he adopted realizing he could not stop the granite chinned wWalker and decided to box instead, using his speed, ring movement, and in and out punching, particularly to the Stalker‘s muscular body. Each judge had it 80-72.
But it was against come backing fellow-New Yorker Walton (who had never been stopped), where he showed his full arsenal of weapons in an almost flawless performance. Not looking for the KO, he finally caught “Blaze” in the eighth round with two head-snapping and wince-provoking uppercuts that forced Walton to walk away and give Jacobs the TKO. If I had to rate his performance, I would give him close to a TEN, as he ignored a bad cut over his right eye, worked superbly off the ropes, and controlled the action in the middle of the ring with fluid movement and great hand speed. In fact, according to a punch count tabulation by ESPN, he landed an astounding 286 punches to Walton’s 83. Moreover, the way he blended his punishing body shots with multi-punch and sharp combos was a thing of beauty. Of course, the question remains: was Danny that good or was George that bad?
Still, Jacobs has the maturity of a much older fighter and handles himself extremely well in post-fight interviews. He is articulate and exudes charisma. There is also something Old School in his demeanor that I like as well, not to mention that he is an active fighter. But perhaps most importantly, he is focused and grounded, and has surrounded himself with some of the best business minded people in boxing.
Hopefully, now that he has turned in the kind of effort everyone seems to have been waiting for, he will begin to get some credit for his ring efforts. In this connection, at least two ranking bodies (FIGHTNEWS and the WBA) have him in their top 12. For me, that’s way too premature. Jacobs likely will end up at 168. That division is very deep and will get deeper in the near future, so there is no reason to rush him before his time.
Of course, speaking of rankings, one potential fight down the road that does come to mind is with undefeated Russian middleweight prospect Matt Korobov (whose amateur record was 300-12.) Another would be with James Kirkland, but that’s not likely to happen. Perhaps a better test at this point would be with Peter Manfredo (32-6). Curiously, the last time Danny Jacobs reportedly entered the ring as an underdog was against Korobov in 2005.
With a nickname of “The Golden Child,” I am betting that some green gold may be coming his way in the not-too-distant future. At any rate, Brooklyn has a new reason to smile–and that reason is a boxer/puncher by the name of Danny Jacobs.
Visit the author’s updated site at www.tedsares.com