Friday night at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, Daniel Jacobs stopped Sergio Mora at 2:08 of the seventh round?
Their first fight was something to remember. The rematch was something to forget.
Friday night at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, WBA World middleweight champion Daniel ?Miracle Man? Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs), from Brooklyn, New York, TKO?d former WBC super welterweight champion Sergio ?The Latin Snake? Mora (28-5-2, 9 KOs), from Los Angeles, California, at 2:08 of the seventh round.
In their first fight Jacobs scored a second round TKO when Mora broke his ankle. The end of the rematch was not as dramatic as the end of their first fight, which was unusually short and sweet, but Jacobs established his superiority by dropping Mora five times before it was stopped.
Fighting out of the blue corner in grey trunks with blue trim, Jacobs controlled the pace while Mora danced around the ring, switches stances in the hope of befuddling the champ.
But Mora, fighting out of the red corner in black and gold trunks, however much he moved, failed to impress. He also failed to justify the rematch, which many people, including Jacobs himself, questioned a week before the fight.
?I just understand that this fight for my career at this particular point isn?t really going to do anything for me,? said Jacobs. ?It?s more going to do anything?more for Sergio than it would do for me. But, me and him have the same management in Al Haymon. So, I can understand why this fight is being made.?
That understanding is a given. Al Haymon is calling the shots. What is not a given is the quality or lack thereof of Jacobs? performance. Styles make fights. By the same token, wrong styles make for forgettable fights, which sums up tonight?s one-sided beatdown.
Mora is awkward and used that awkwardness to his advantage. But at the age of 35 and with only nine knockouts in 35 fights, Mora knew what he was up against and seemed as interested in survival as victory, especially when victory seemed so remote, and grew increasingly remote as the rounds progressed.
Jacobs is a terrific guy who it is impossible not to like, but he fought an undisciplined fight, looking for a knockout instead of letting it come naturally. But winning is all that matters. Maybe he?ll look better in his next outing.
?I have to take my hat off to Sergio Mora,? said Jacobs after the fight. ?There was a lot of talking before this fight, but this is boxing. I respect any man who gets inside of this ring.?
That respect is as justified.
?I wanted to go in there to hurt him and keep my knockout streak alive,? he added. ?I did what I said I would. I didn?t expect to knock him down as much, but I did see the fight ending in a knockout. It took a while because he?s so tricky. I wasn?t able to jab the way I wanted to. That?s what happens when you fight guys who have been in the game for a long time.?
Mora is a veteran and has been in there with some tough opposition, but the clock is winding down.
?The guy punches really hard,? Mora said. ?I was trying to catch him like I did in the first fight but I couldn?t do it today.
?We expected him to fight the way he did. He?s big and powerful. I knew I would have to catch him with a few shots and take him into the later rounds. I think I was doing that until my legs couldn?t recover.
?I?m not going to take anything away from his victory, but the fight was close in my heart. Daniel finally gave me credit. I didn?t feel like I got beat up, he just caught me with good shots. I have a lot left in me.?
Now that Mora is out of the way a second time, Jacobs called out WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, the undefeated knockout artist from Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Golovkin is the consensus greatest middleweight fighting today. But if Jacobs fights Triple G the way he fought Mora?looking for the KO, throwing and missing shots against a fighter who had no business being in the ring with him?it might be a short night.
