LAS VEGAS — As the days draw closer to the biggest fight of his career, Daniel Jacobs has made it a point to avoid at all costs dipping into any negative energy that might unnecessarily rob him of much-needed good vibes.
Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs), who will defend his IBF middleweight title against WBA, WBC and lineal champion Canelo Alvarez on Saturday (DAZN, 9 p.m. ET) at T-Mobile Arena, has even gone as far as flying in his full-time yoga instructor ahead of the fight to help with meditation and channeling out negativity.
Sitting down with reporters during a media roundtable before Wednesday’s final press conference, the 32-year-old Jacobs was the personification of chill. Decked out in a track suit and dark shades, he effortlessly avoided difficult questions as if he was slipping punches inside the ring by downplaying the impact of anything negative that was thrown his way.
“I don’t really feed into anything other than the positive — what I’ve done inside the ring, what I’ve done with preparation, my game plan with my team that we’ve formulated,” Jacobs said. “All the odds, the he say, she say, I keep it to a minimum. I just focus on what the job has to be and that’s to be victorious Saturday night.”
In the months that led up to the fight, Jacobs had sung a very different tune depending upon the day. While critics have largely handicapped the bout as 50-50 on paper, there’s no question in anyone’s mind who the A-side of the promotion is.
Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs), the biggest pay-per-view brand in North America and arguably the sport’s biggest star globally, enters his first fight of PPV quality after signing a landmark 10-bout, $365 million deal last fall with DAZN, the all-sports streaming app whose advertising hook has surrounded its intentions to kill traditional PPV.
As the unquestioned bigger name and more lucrative draw, Alvarez has flexed his muscles in ways that play to his advantage, including a mandatory rematch clause only if Jacobs wins. Because of that, a pair of topics have dominated the narrative since the fight was first announced: Alvarez’s insistence that Jacobs accept a 170-pound rehydration clause and the Mexican star’s decorated history of getting preferential treatment from the judges in all of his big fights.
Asked about the rehydration clause in February, Jacobs called it “very insulting” and accused both Alvarez and promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy for operating “not in the essence of boxing.” But on Wednesday, Jacobs had seemingly put the issue behind him. In fact, he made sure to hammer home how little of an issue it actually was.
“I don’t know if we would have gotten the fight if we didn’t accept the terms that Golden Boy had sent out,” Jacobs said. “Plus, this is not something that I’m not unfamiliar with.
“I wasn’t insulted at all, no. I kind of knew it and was actually kind of expecting it.”
