By Ian S Palmer
Former WBA Middleweight Champion Daniel Jacobs of Brooklyn, New York will be squaring off against unbeaten Maciej Sulecki of Poland this Saturday, November 11th at the Barclays Center in Jacobs’ hometown. The 12-round bout can be seen live in North America on HBO while fans in the UK can catch the action live on Sky Sports. Jacobs last fought in November when he beat Luis Arias by a 12-round unanimous decision while Sulecki’s last outing took place in October when he beat Jack Culcay by 10round unanimous decision. This fight is supposed to be an eliminator for a shot at the WBA Middleweight crown.
The 31-year-old Jacobs, who overcame bone cancer, climbs into the ring with an impressive record of 33-2 along with 29 Kos. He defended his title four times before running into Gennady Golovkin and losing it by unanimous decision last March. Jacobs stopped Caleb Truax in the 12th round in his first title defence in April, 2015 then stopped Sergio Mora in the second round later later that year before stopping Mora for the second time in September, 2016. In between, he stopped Peter Quillin in the first round. Jacobs won the vacant WBA Title in August, 2014 by stopping Jarrod Fletcher in the fifth round.
Jacobs’ other defeat came at the hands of Dmitry Pirog in July of 2010 when he was stopped in the fifth round. Jacobs is known for his boxing skills, speed and power, but his chin could be somewhat questionable after being stopped by Pirog and dropped by Golovkin. Jacobs stands 6-feet-1-inch tall and has a reach of 73 inches. He’s got 133 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2007 and has a very impressive knockout ratio of 83 per cent. However, he’s arguably faced just a few top-ranked opponents so far in his career and they were Pirog, Quillin, Golovkin Mora and Caleb Truax.
As for Sulecki, he’s 28-years-old and hails from Warsaw. He’s been perfect as a pro at 26-0 with 10 Kos to his name. He’s fought 155 rounds since his debut in 2010 and is a former Polish Middleweight and Super Middleweight Champion. He doesn’t have much in the way of power with just 10 Kos and his current knockout ratio is just 38 per cent. He’s got some good skills though along with a solid chin and has fought between junior middleweight and super middleweight as a pro. He’s got decent size as he’s 6-feet-1-inch tall with a 68-inch reach. He’s the same height as Jacobs, but gives up five inches in reach.
Sulecki hasn’t really been taking on the cream of the crop in his weight divisions, but has faced and beaten some solid opponents. These include Culcay, Hugo Centeno Jr., Derrick Findley, Darryl Cunningham and Grzegorz Proksa. However, he’s stepping up in class on Saturday night when he steps into the ring against Jacobs and will need to be at his very best to pull off an upset. It won’t be easy though since he lacks the power to keep Jacobs at bay.
Prediction…
Jacobs is a fine all-round boxer with power, but may own a somewhat questionable chin. It probably won’t matter though since Sulecki isn’t a big banger. Jacobs will use his speed, mobility and boxing skills to do what he does best and should win this fight rather comfortably.
