JACOBS: Tough task, but he's ready for anything

The last time a New York boxer took on a Russian fighter in Las Vegas it wasn’t a good night at all for the representative of the Empire State. Brooklyn was in the house, but not for very long as Zab Judah crashed out of the fight in the second round, courtesy of Kostya Tszyu’s arrow-straight right hand.
 
On Saturday, Brooklyn’s Danny Jacobs steps up in class to meet Russia’s formidable Dmitry Pirog for the vacant WBO middleweight title in what many regard as the most intriguing bout on HBO’s PPV show at the Mandalay Bay casino resort.

What struck me immediately was the contrast between the pre-fight approach of Judah and Jacobs. “Super” Zab was full of talk about what he was going to do to Tszyu, whereas Jacobs talks respectfully about his opponent. I much prefer the Jacobs manner of conducting himself. At 23, he has an impressive maturity and also, it seems to me, the dignity of the old-school champions.
 
Jacobs faces the roughest, toughest fight of his life in Saturday’s clash of undefeated boxers. Pirog is expected to come right at Jacobs and try to overwhelm him with a high punch-output. Jacobs is very well aware of Pirog’s relentless style but hints that the Russian fighter might be in for a surprise.
 
“It’s expected,” Jacobs said over the phone from Las Vegas on Tuesday when discussing Pirog’s anticipated onslaught, “but at the same time when your opponent — meaning me — has something up his sleeve and has a game plan that he wants to execute, I think sometimes people change up their game plan.
 
“Sometimes you don’t always fight the way you want to fight because your opponent won’t allow you to. It’s similar [to] situations with me in the past. I’ve fought people that made me switch up my style and I had to get on my toes and box, and find another solution.
 
“So I think that will be the case in this fight. He’ll have to switch up his style, and he will have to do things he hasn’t done before — including me, I think I will have to go up my sleeve and find some tricks to get this victory, but I think it serves for a good fight because he doesn’t know what’s expected and I don’t know what’s expected. So we’re going to go in there and just give it our all and see who can be the victor.”
 
Jacobs trained for the fight in the Poconos, in Pennsylvania. “It’s in the mountains and you’re getting that good air and getting strong up there,” he said. “We had some pretty good sparring partners. I’d rather not say who they were, but there were three guys and each guy had Dmitry Pirog’s style — one was a pressure fighter, one threw a lot of punches and one had that deceptive head movement and the posture, so I think all three fighters kinda equalled up to Dmitry Pirog.
 
“I don’t think there’ll be anything different that he can bring to the table. I’ve seen pretty much all his fights, and he does the same thing over and over again, there’s nothing different in his arsenal. But, you never know, this is the biggest fight of his life, the biggest fight of my life, he may add something, or he might take away something. I’ve just got to go in there and do what I do best — and that’s win. We had a fitness trainer and different guys on the team that we never had before, so I’m just looking to perform and give it my all.
 
“I don’t think I’ve really had that fight that showcased my skills 100 per cent. I think that this fight might be one of those fights where I have to dig down and pull everything out of the bag and everybody can see what I have to offer, and I think that would be a great thing because that would bring me more fans and of course bring an attractive fight. But it would let the world know that if I become world champion on July 31, it’s for a reason.”
 
Jacobs has yet to give what one might call a defining performance. In his biggest fight, he won clearly but struggled against the cagey veteran Ishe Smith. There was a reason for the lack of fire, though. “I fractured my left knuckle I believe in the second round, and it was bad,” Jacobs said. “We had to lay off for six, seven months, we rested it up and we’re ready to go, we’ve had two fights since then and on July 31 I don’t think I’ll have any excuses as far as my hand; I’ll go in there 100 per cent.”
 
Pirog has won almost every round of every fight, but Jacobs feels that his opponent has never been seriously tested. “He’s fought Kofi Jantuah, a couple of other guys, Eric Mitchell,” Jacobs said, “but those guys stood right there and you can’t be a good boxer if you’re standing straight up. They were just there to be there — in my opinion. I don’t think they gave it 100 per cent. But, bringing up a prospect, you have to put them in there with those type of guys that had the name but was a little bit past their prime. They’ve done it with me.
 
“This is the fight that will bring the best out of him or the best out of me, and this will make or break me or Dmitry. I’m excited, because a lot is at stake and I’m just ready to perform.
 
“He hasn’t got hit with a flush shot, maybe once or twice early in his career I’ve seen him get stung, but he’s been in there with guys that haven’t had any decent speed-power or power, and I think I have both — I think I have speed and significant power. I think he’s going to be faced with things where he’s going to have to go to Plan B, or Plan C, but he just has to be ready — me as well.
 
“I know he’s been watching tapes of me and he probably has pinpointed some things that he thinks I’m weak on, but in camp we were trying to make all our weaknesses, strengths, and you’re going to see July 31 exactly [what the improvements are]. What we used to do bad, we’ve put right, and we’re gonna do even more, so, I’m just looking forward to it.”
 
Some might wonder if the relatively untested Jacobs has the grit and fortitude to stand up to Pirog’s all-out aggression. Jacobs, though, might refer you to a fiercely contested bout with Shawn Porter in the amateurs, when he was dropped heavily a big left hook in the third but rallied so strongly in the next round that a wobbly Porter was given a standing eight count. Indeed, Porter might well have been saved by the bell. He survived, and Jacobs got a well-deserved decision.
 
“That was the U.S. championships,” Jacobs recalled. “That was probably the best fight I’ve ever had as an amateur and one of the key fights I’ve had — it goes to show you that when I get hit, I come right back. That’s the Brooklyn in me, and it lives in that ring when I’m in there.
 
“When you hit me, I’ve got to get that point back, and I’ve got to get you back even more and even harder than you hit me. When [Porter] dropped me, I came back and gave him an eight count and I was on the verge of stopping him. It was a very exciting fight, and I showed a lot of heart in that fight — as I do each and every time I get into the ring.”
 
• Jacobs versus Pirog has the potential to be one of the best fights of the year. Fight analysis and Graham’s selection in the subscribers’ section.