Daniel Jacobs knew the morning of his May 2019 fight against Canelo Alvarez that his future would no longer be in the 160-pound weight class. The two-time middleweight world champion suffered a unanimous decision loss to Canelo and immediately moved up to super-middleweight, where he trounced Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in five rounds last December.
He’ll compete in his second fight at 168-pounds on Friday when he faces Gabriel Rosado at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida (live and exclusively on DAZN).
Although the pandemic has slowed down Jacobs’ quest for a world title in his new division, the 33-year-old already has plans to face one of the super middleweight titleholders should he emerge victorious vs. Rosado. And that just might include a potential rematch with Canelo down the line.
“I sure hope so,” Jacobs said to DAZN News about a possible return bout with Canelo at a weight class he’s more comfortable in. “I have to put myself back in that position. I can’t just demand a fight because, obviously, everyone is gunning for Canelo.
“I have to earn that right again. So, once I get a belt, from whoever it might be, that’s when you’ll see me gunning for Canelo again.”
Jacobs has avoided making excuses for his loss to Canelo but it was evident that the weight became a huge problem heading into that fight. After making the 160-pound weight limit, Jacobs was unable to stay within the 170-pound rehydration clause the following day and was fined $1,000,000 for coming in at 173.6 pounds. Trying to keep his weight under 170-pounds resulted in a fighter whose energy was sapped before the fight even began.
“I had to face crazy weight restrictions because (Canelo’s team) had the idea that I had blew up to 180 pounds in order to absorb Gennadiy Golovkin’s punches,” Jacobs said. “When they saw that Golovkin didn’t look like Superman against me, they knew the route they had to go in order to limit the chances of me being successful.
“I just gave up trying to keep the weight off the next day and it cost me a million dollars. I was already feeling drained.
Jacobs knows that it’s highly unlikely that he would face Canelo next, but believes that if he can secure a fight with one of the titleholders, his chances to land a return bout increase exponentially. And if he is able to face boxing’s biggest star again, Jacobs promises the outcome will be different.
“I went in there not being at my strongest and still only lost by two rounds to Canelo so that shows just what kind of fighter I am,” he said. “The outcome will be different if I’m at 100 percent. This is why I'm very excited to be in the super middleweight division because the possibilities are endless. And you're going to see a much more improved Daniel Jacobs.”