HBO closes a busy Saturday night with a two fight doubleheader headlined by the return of at worst top four middleweight Danny Jacobs against lesser known Polish fighter Maciej Sulecki. Is that a tough fight or a walk over for Jacobs? Emerging heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller also returns in the co-main event.
What a wild ride it has been for Danny Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) in the best and the worst ways. A known prospect upon turning pro, Jacobs started his first two years off with the successful run you’d expect. He was considered maybe the best prospect in all of the sport by the end of 2009 after soundly beating tough veteran out Ishe Smith in his first step up fight.
Two fights later in July 2011, Jacobs found himself in his first world title opportunity against fellow rising prospect Dmitry Pirog of Russia. Mostly boxing well, Danny was nonetheless caught along the ropes in the fifth round by an epic overhand right that put him out. Pirog was definitely a known threat, but it was still a shock to see the heralded prospect finished in his first world title opportunity like that. Unfortunately, it was no where near the biggest set back Jacobs would face over the course of the year.
In May of 2011, Danny Jacobs was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a life-threatening form of bone cancer. He had been suffering from pain and weakness in his leg for some time. This is a cancer with a typically bleak prognosis. At his worst, Jacobs says his legs were paralyzed for six weeks. Nonetheless, treatment and perseverance of will prevailed. The Miracle Man was reborn without as much as missing two full years out of the ring.
The Miracle Man won six straight at a lower level before starting to step back up. First he stopped eventual surprise titleholder Caleb Truax late. Then he recovered from being hurt in a wild two round brawl with Sergio Mora to win after Mora was injured. They’d rematch for a more decisive win for Danny, but in between he scored his biggest win to date with a shocking first round blitzing of top contender Peter Quillin. This all led to Jacobs’s big shot in March of last year, a crack at middleweight king Gennady Golovkin.
Despite being dropped early, I thought Jacobs fought a great fight against a man previously seen as unbeatable. I even scored the fight for him extremely narrowly. It was a nip and tuck contest, however, and I took no issue with Golovkin getting the narrow decision win instead. Since then Danny surprisingly signed with British powerhouse promoter Eddie Hearn to help Matchroom Boxing kickstart their US promotional branch. He fought once under Matchroom banners in November, decisioning Luis Arias in poor fight due to Arias being uninterested in engaging.
Maciej Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs) doesn’t have a compelling in or out of the ring story like his opponent Saturday night. Yet, if the measure of a fighter being known should be his abilities in the ring, then many more people should know the Polish contender. He can fight.
Sulecki first broke out of the Polish regional scene with a stoppage win over world fringe contender Grzegorz Proksa in 2014. That is the kind of win that gets an unbeaten fighter noticed and he was able to move his career stateside afterward. Following a trio of easier fights to get his feet wet on the American scene, Sulecki took full advantage of a major opportunity on the now defunct PBC on NBC series against fellow unbeaten prospect Hugo Centeno Jr. He stopped Centeno in ten.
As anyone reading this unfortunately knows, the PBC team is not exactly great at getting their guys consistent fights though. Having been out almost a year following what looked like a breakthrough win, Sulecki returned to Poland for two soft touches. That is not all he did over there though. He also dropped in weight to junior middleweight. When Sulecki finally returned stateside, it wasn’t with PBC but instead on a World Boxing Super Series undercard against a solid junior middleweight contender in Jack Culcay. The Polish contender definitely struggled with and was hurt at times by Culcay, but in the end he escaped with a close decision, his unbeaten record, and his third significant win.
How do I think Maciej Sulecki matches up with Danny Jacobs? I don’t think he does all that well. Look, crazy things can happen in a fight. Much crazier things have already happened to Danny Jacobs than losing to Maciej Sulecki. Hell, he was almost knocked out by the entirely powerless Sergio Mora not that long ago. It is just that that is what it would take for Sulecki to win this. Something crazy.
Maciej is a good fighter. Danny is a really good one. Maciej has realized he is best at junior middleweight. Danny is a massive full middleweight. He’s the harder hitter, the better athlete, and Sulecki doesn’t have the huge boxing skills advantage he’d need to overcome that. But hey, nobody thought Dmitry Pirog was going to knock Danny out. Certainly no one thought he was going to get cancer and then no one thought he could come back from that when he did. No one though Sergio Mora would drop him hard and nobody thought The Miracle Man would then blow out Peter Quillin in a round in his next fight. No one really thought he could beat GGG either. He didn’t, officially, but he proved that he could.
All I am saying is that Danny Jacobs has had a wildly unpredictable life and career. Maciej Sulecki is certainly good enough to make something weird happen if it is going to be another unpredictable and memorable night for the top middleweight.
Jarrell Miller (20-0-1, 18 KOs) continues his slow, oversized climb up the heavyweight rankings in the co-main event against veteran Frenchman Johann Duhaupas (37-4, 24 KOs). Miller is an interesting prospect who seems to be a plus athlete with surprising endurance, but he weighed in for this fight at over 300 lbs. Duhaupas was briefly a fringe contender with wins over the likes of Robert Helenius and Manuel Charr, but he has since taken some real beatings from top heavyweights in Deontay Wilder and Alexander Povetkin. Overweight or not, Jarrell Miller should be able to handle him comfortably if he is a real contender in the division.
HBO has the call at 10 PM Eastern. Top Rank on ESPN will be over by then, but PBC on FOX will likely conflict over the second half of its show. I’ll probably choose to mostly skip the PBC show until the next day, but make your own choice on this one.
