JACOBS, ROSADO TO MEET IN GRUDGE MATCH
Former middleweight titleholder Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs is scheduled to return to the ring Friday against seasoned boxing veteran Gabriel “King” Rosado. The bout will headline a DAZN broadcasted card from the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida.
Jacobs (36-3, 30 KO) is looking to earn his second consecutive win since losing a decision, and his middleweight title, to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, in May 2019. He managed to get back into the win column with a stoppage victory over former titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in his super middleweight debut later that year.
Before moving up to 168 pounds, Jacobs had competed with some of the most popular names at 160 pounds. That list includes Dmitry Pirog, Caleb Truax, Sergio Mora, Gennady Golovkin, Sergiy Derevyancheko, along with Alvarez and Chavez. Out of those names, he’s only lost to Pirog, Golovkin and Alvarez.
Rosado (25-12-1, 14 KO) has shared the ring with the best fighters at middleweight and super middleweight for the last seven years. Since losing via TKO to Gennady Golovkin in 2013, Rosado has stepped in with fighters like Peter Quillin, Jermell Charlo, David Lemieux, Willie Monroe Jr., Martin Murray, etc. What is lacking from Rosado’s resume are wins over top fighters, as he has lost to all the fighters previously listed.
Both Jacobs and Rosado have a bit of bad blood going into Friday’s matchup, as they were involved in a confrontation prior to the December 2019 card in Phoenix that they were both competing in. After Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. had missed weight before his fight with Jacobs, Rosado was willing to step in and fight Jacobs himself. This led to a backstage argument that ended with them being forcibly separated.
Jacobs is looking to eventually fight a world title in his second weight class, and could potentially face the winner of Callum Smith-Canelo Alvarez if he wins on Friday night. Rosado on the other hand, is being presented with what will most likely be his last big opportunity to get to a world title.
In the co-main event, Daniyar Yeleussinov (9-0, 5 KO) will take on former titleholder Julius Indongo (23-2, 12 KO) in a welterweight bout.
Yeleussinov was an amateur standout before entering the paid ranks, winning a gold medal in the 2016 Olympic games in Rio. Indongo will be Yeleussinov’s first big test of his professional career so far, and the Kazakh will be looking to score his third consecutive stoppage win on Friday.
Back in 2017, then WBA/IBF junior welterweight champion Julius Indongo had a chance to unify the entire division and win the undisputed title in a matchup with then WBC/WBO champion Terence Crawford. Unfortunately for Indongo, he was stopped in the third round by Crawford with a vicious body shot.
In 2018, he lost for the second time in a row against Regis Prograis, as he was stopped in the second round of that fight. And in his most recent assignment last year in August, he scored a bounce back TKO win over Carltavius Jones Johnson in the second round.
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Date: 27th November 2020
Time: 03:00AM (UK Time)
Venue: Hard Rock Hotel, Hollywood