by David P. Greisman

Boxing fans already knew how Daniel Jacobs was. But now they’ll be paying even more attention to him after his first-round technical knockout of Peter Quillin, according to Lou DiBella, the promoter who works on many of the shows involving fighters signed with adviser Al Haymon.

“A star was born tonight,” DiBella said afterward. “That was incredibly impressive.

““Speed — speed of another level — is power,” the promoter later added. “What was amazing about that barrage of punches was not only the force of them, but how many of them they were and how quick they were.”

Jacobs was a prospect who got a chance to fight for a vacant title back in 2010. That fight ended in defeat, with Dmitry Pirog stopping Jacobs. After two bounce-back fights, Jacobs’ career and life were suddenly in jeopardy. He’d been diagnosed with cancer. Doctors weren’t sure if he’d survive. And if he did, they weren’t sure if he’d even be able to walk.

He recovered, came back in late 2012, rattled off five wins and then won a title belt. Even with that title, there were questions. It was a vacant belt, and a secondary one at that — the World Boxing Association has multiple titleholders in each division, for whatever silly reason, and it had Gennady Golovkin as its top beltholder while Jacobs was secondary. And the belt had been won against Jarrod Fletcher, who clearly didn’t belong in the ring with a fighter of Jacobs’ level.

We still weren’t sure what Jacobs’ level was, even after that and wins ove Caleb Truax and Sergio Mora. This performance against Quillin gives a strong indication, DiBella said.

“Danny’s a star,” DiBella said. “He’s one of the best middleweights in the world. I take nothing away from Golovkin. Danny’s just a star at life. Look at what he’s done in his career and how he’s come back — knockout loss, cancer, unusual type, bad type, a type a lot of people don’t recover from. When you’ve gone through what he’s gone through, you don’t fear people. You’ve already gone through as big an adversary as you can ever face in your life.

“That big a performance, man, no one ever expected that. I didn’t expect that. I think people were blown away. That barrage of punches was unbelievable. And to have a big strong guy like Peter out on his feet that quickly, that was a remarkable performance. The kid is a superstar in the making. From Brooklyn, New York, a local kid, with this building [Barclays Center] behind him, he’s going to have a lot of alternatives, a lot of choices.”

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