The band is back together. And nothing could make Daniel Jacobs happier.
The former middleweight champion, who fights John Ryder at super middleweight Saturday at Alexandra Palace in London (DAZN), was barely able to get past tough, but limited veteran Gabriel Rosado in his most-recent fight 14-plus months ago.
One reason is that Rosado comes to fight. Another, Jacobs said, was the fact the team with which he’s built a successful career was fragmented. Longtime trainer Andre Rozier and another familiar face in his camp, Anthony Irons, weren’t in his corner for the Rosado fight in November 2020.
Now everyone is back and Jacobs feels whole again.
“With any family members sometimes you don’t see eye to eye,” Jacobs told Boxing Junkie. “I think that was the case with me and Andre Rozier and Anthony Irons. The dynamic duo are back. Having my team together brings out the best in me. I haven’t had that, especially for my last fight.
“I wasn’t in my best mental space. It was unfortunate that it came out the way it did, but I’m grateful I came out the victor and have another opportunity to show the world I’m everything I say I am.”
Jacobs (37-3, 30 KOs) edged an inspired Rosado by a close, split decision in a fight in which “we both stunk it up,” he said.
That was the exception for the Brooklyn product, who bounced back from a knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010 and a bout with cancer to become middleweight champion in 2017. He has victories over Caleb Truax, Sergio Mora (twice), Peter Quillin and Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
And he pushed Gennadiy Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez to their limits in losses, leaving no doubt that he’s among the best in the business when he’s 100%.
Indeed, he wants to remind you that he’s one of the top fighters between 160 and 168 pounds over the past decade. And he believes he has enough time, even at 35, to polish his legacy.
He’ll have to do so in order to achieve his ultimate goal: Induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. And if he makes it, he said, it will be with his team members at his side.
“I’ve had an amazing career with my team,” he said. “We’re been able to do it … and unfortunately most fighters can’t say this … we’ve been able to do things our way for a very, very long time. We’ve never been held down by a promoter or manager or any outside force. And I’m grateful for that.
“Now it’s really time for us to look at the end goal, which would be the Hall of Fame. We have to focus on the fights that make the most sense for us to be able to achieve that.”
Of course, Jacobs doesn’t know who he will face in those fights but he’ll be gunning for the biggest names, assuming he beats Ryder (30-5, 17 KOs). And he expects to have the kind of success for which he has been known.
“I still think,” he said, “that I have glory days ahead.”