PHOENIX — A new weight might mean a renewed Daniel Jacobs. He’s climbing up the scale and away from the grinding, often dangerous battle to make weight.
Call it a debut and a departure from a struggle that has left Jacobs drawn, drained and – in the end – defeated.
“You guys don’t understand the damage I was doing to my body trying to make weight,’’ Jacobs (35-3, 29 KOs) said at the final news conference before his first fight at super middleweight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (51-3-1, 33 KOs) Friday at Talking Stick Arena on DAZN.
In his last fight, in early May, Jacobs, still a middleweight, lost a decision to Canelo Alvarez. He also lost some money, a fine assessed when he failed to make the weight mandated by a re-hydration contract clause on the morning of the bout.
Jacobs was 3.6 pounds heavier than the mandated 170, which is 10 pounds heavier than the 160-limit he made at the formal weigh-in less than 24 hours earlier. According to the contract, he was penalized $250,000 for each pound. Any ounce more than three pounds would be rounded up to a fourth pound, also according to the contract. It wound up costing Jacobs $1 million.
Damage to the body.
Damage to the wallet, too.
Time to move.
“I feel strong,’’ said Jacobs, who has dedicated the fight to the late Patrick Day, his longtime friend who died four days after suffering head trauma in a fight on Oct. 12. “I feel like this is the perfect weight for me. I’m only two pounds away from 168, and for me, that’s the first time ever. I’m probably going to eat breakfast on the morning of the fight.
“We looked exceptional in the gym but, those last two weeks prior to making weight, we’d leave it in the gym. Now, I have an opportunity to carry over those skills, to be hydrated, to be 100 percent. The skills in the gym that my team sees? I am allowing the world an opportunity to see that.’’