One of HBO’s last hurrah’s has an excellent 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 by that point. 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 made his debut under Matchroom banners in November on HBO, decisioning Luis Arias in poor fight due to Arias being uninterested in engaging.
Most recently in April, underrated contender Maciej Sulecki gave Danny a pretty stiff test. Ultimately Jacobs dropped him late and won a clear decision, but it was a competitive fight the whole way through, also on HBO. Saturday night’s card will be Jacob’s last on the premium network, however. He was probably always moving on to DAZN after this fight given Matchroom’s relationship with the streaming service, but HBO’s withdrawal from the sport it has become a foregone conclusion.
Sergiy Derevyanchenko (12-0, 10 KOs), known as “The Technician,” is a Premier Boxing Champions middleweight getting an absolutely massive opportunity here in this vacant IBF title fight. He’s been considered a major prospect since turning pro and it isn’t difficult to see why. PBC tested him early with quality, known journeymen like Elvin Alaya and Jessie Nicklow. He passed easily. In 2016 he stepped up to take on aging recent titleholder Sam Soliman. It didn’t prove to be a test at all, however, as Derevyanchenko blew Soliman out in two rounds. Decent 2017 stoppage wins against then unbeaten prospect Kemahl Russel and fringe contender Tureano Johnson earned Sergiy the title opportunity in front of him this weekend. All the Ukrainian has done this year is take a nothing six round tune up while waiting for his big opportunity to come.
When Golovkin-Canelo 2 fell apart the first time due to the Mexican’s failed drug test, the IBF ordered GGG to face their mandatory contender in Derevyanchenko in his next fight. The Technician is dangerous, however, so Gennady elected to vacate the belt that is on the line here rather than risk losing the millions of dollars on the table for the Canelo rematch later in the year. This is how Jacobs-Derevyanchenko came to be as a world title fight.
I’m of a couple minds for this fight. On one hand, I do not think Jacobs looked all that great post-GGG against Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki. Arias took the most negative route possible so I don’t know how much we can read on that, but Derevyanchenko is better than Sulecki at a lot of the things the Polish middleweight did well technically to bother Danny. He brings the same straight line work with much more pop behind it.
Yet, even though I typed that with some confidence, there is a small part of me still a little skeptical of Sergiy. The Technician has looked the part of the elite prospect for sure, but there isn’t a ton definitive on his resume. Soliman was undoubtedly shot while Russel and Johnson are largely untested beyond Tureano’s controversial last round stoppage loss to Curtis Stevens. It isn’t like he was a dominant amateur on the international scene either. The Ukrainian was definitely a good one, but he failed to medal in both of his World Amateur Championship appears and in the Olympics. And while Sergiy did post an extremely impressive run in the semi-pro World Series of Boxing, his one loss there to Brian Castano was the only time he was matched with someone who has gone on to have real pro success. All I am saying is that while Sergiy Derevyanchenko has received the hype and mostly looked the part in the ring, his resume is a little more questionable when examined more closely.
I think I favor Danny based on that. Again, I’m not all that confident though. Both me possess the power to hurt one another and both men also seem to also possess the skill necessary to land the shot. I think this one could be grueling and decided late. I also like the HBO main event’s action potential. In either case, the winner of the title fight will be in line for bigger work. Jacobs has the red headed white whale of boxing to hunt on DAZN in Canelo Avarez while The Technician would head back to PBC territory that could include an excellent showdown with Jermall Charlo.
WBA junior lightweight titleholder Alberto Machado (20-0, 16 KOs) defends his strap in the co-main event against Yuandale Evans (20-1, 14 KOs). Technically the Puerto Rican is the “regular” belt holder while Tank Davis is the “super” titleholder and I’d normally disregard his belt based on that hierarchy, but in this case it is more complicated than normal even by the WBA’s convoluted standards. Machado beat their titleholder to claim the belt, Davis won what looked like one of their secondary versions, but then the WBA announced everything was actually the other way around for no discernible reason. I’m not going to knock Machado for that nonsense.
Anyway, this is an interesting style matchup. Machado is a puncher for sure, but he’s also notably slow and clumsy in there for the weight. Evans is a much more dynamic athlete. He’s also been starched early previously courtesy of Javier Fortuna in his one career loss. Because of this duality, the fight really could end up going in either direction. It is even more difficult to predict then the well matched main event due to Alberto’s very specific strengths and weakness. Nonetheless, I think the titleholder will pull through. He’s succeeded against much better competition than Evans has. Plus, he’ll have a full 36 minutes to find his one big moment in.
The card begins at 10 PM Eastern live on HBO and will also feature female action with a Heather Hardy title defense. This looks like it will be the third to last card broadcast on HBO and it is also the first to air since their announcement. How they handle that should be interesting. I’m guessing there won’t be a dry eye left on Jim Lampley’s face before the night is over.
