By Steve Kim
Daniel Jacobs comes into his impending HBO Pay-Per-View battle against Gennady Golovkin with a record of 32-1 with 29 stoppages. But many pundits are more focused on the one blemish on his ledger than the multitude of victories, which came on July 31, 2010 at the hands of Dmitry Pirog, who stopped him in five rounds to capture the vacant WBO middleweight title.
But in retrospect, Jacobs' trainer, Andre Rozier says - ";First and foremost, it was a very hard time for him. His grandmother passed away the week of the fight. We should've honestly not followed through on the fight."
"He was an emotional wreck and he couldn't pull it together. He's grown since then and we know he had to fight the biggest fight of his life dealing with cancer of the spine and he succeeded."
From March of 2011 to October of 2012, Jacobs was sidelined as he battled his ailment.
"So there's nothing for Danny to fear, literally he's not afraid of anything,"said Rozier on Wednesday afternoon from the Congo Room at L.A. Live where a press conference was staged for this event that takes place on March 18th at the Madison Square Garden in New York.
Rozier believes the Pirog fight should basically be thrown out. The Danny Jacobs that was knocked out by Pirog is not the Danny Jacobs of 2017. Since the loss to Pirog, he's won twelve in a row, all by knockout.
"He's ready to fight and he will fight anybody the same way. He knows he's a monster now."
Steve Kim is the news editor for krikya360.com.