Daniel Jacobs had planned to honor Patrick Day with a speech after his victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. but the crowd had other ideas.
Daniel Jacobs leaves Phoenix with a victory at a heavier weight, some newfound fans and $1 million more than he expected when he arrived. But he also departs with one regret.
He didn’t get a chance to remember an absent friend the way he had hoped to.
There was an angry crowd, boos and a shower of debris instead of a solemn moment for Patrick Day.
“I really was looking forward to giving a speech about my friend Patrick Day afterwards,’’ Jacobs said after fans threw cups of beer, bottles, chairs and just about anything else not anchored to the floor at Talking Stick Arena in outrage at Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.’s decision not to continue after the fifth round Saturday night on DAZN.
Jacobs came into the ring wearing a custom-made robe and trunks in honor of Day, a middleweight who died four days after suffering brain trauma during a fight in early October. “Patrick Day, All Day“ was stitched in blue on the back of the rob and across the trunks.
But plans for heartfelt memorial were undone by the rush for cover.
“To me, that kind of spoiled that moment, in order for me to really honor him the right way,’’ Jacobs said. “But this is boxing. This is a crazy, hectic sport. I wouldn’t assume anything else.’’
Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. suffered his final two losses in Phoenix. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has a chance to change the family fortune there.
PHOENIX – A father and son, Julio Cesar Chavez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., stood in front of an arena Thursday in the center of a city named for a mythical bird rising from the ashes. They’ve been here before, in different eras, yet both for the same reason.
Father fought to relaunch his career, save it from those ashes, two decades ago against Kostya Tszyu.
Now, it’s his son’s turn Friday night against Danny Jacobs at Talking Stick Arena on DAZN in a fight that was uncertain until Tuesday when a Nevada judge issued an injunction, lifting a suspension that allowed Chavez to retain his license in Arizona.
The fight is on, or at least it was late Thursday. But controversy continued to swirl at an early morning weigh-in. Chavez Jr. stepped on the scale to test his weight for a bout contracted to be at super middleweight. He realized there was no way he would make 168 pounds. He was nearly five pounds too heavy. He was due to step on the scale officially within about an hour. Those five pounds might as well have been 500. There was no magic way to shed them. Forget the sauna or some hasty road work on Phoenix streets still clogged by rush-hour traffic.
It was time to make a deal or toss the advertised fight into that ash can. Talks quickly began with Chavez leaving and re-entering the ballroom for the weigh-in repeatedly. Finally, he smiled. They had a deal, a re-negotiated contract. The fight would be at 173 pounds. Chavez made that weight, no problem. In his official trip to the scale he was at 172.7 pounds. Jacobs, a former middleweight champion moving up in weight, was at 167.9.
Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. (right) ran into an old friend at his son’s weigh-in Thursday in Phoenix, local hero Michael Carbajal. Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing USA
But the deal didn’t happen without a price. According to multiple sources at the weigh-in, Chavez Jr. agreed to pay Jacobs $1 million. According to contracts filed with the Arizona Boxing & MMA Commission, the purses for Chavez Jr. and Jacobs are $2 million each. But the redone agreement means Jacobs (35-3, 29 KOs) walks away from the 173-pound bout with $3 million and Chavez (51-3-1, 33 KOs) with $1 million.
It’s expensive, but it’s an investment in a future that still looks uncertain for Chavez. In effect, he is fighting to put some air under his wings and some distance from those ashes. It’s risky, at least it appears to be, according to the bookmakers who have made Jacobs an 18-1 favorite. But Chavez Jr. is always dangerous. He lost a one-sided decision to Sergio Martinez, yet he staged an astonishing 12th-round, nearly knocking out Martinez in wild three minutes that effectively ended Martinez’s career.
He has father’s heavy hands, which means he has a chance. His father was there Thursday at a ceremonial weigh-in outside of the arena where his career ended against an Omaha car salesman, Grover Wiley. Chavez failed to get off the stool after the fourth round in bout that had been advertised as one stop on a goodbye tour of cities. As it turned out, it was a final goodbye.
The senior Chavez had been there once before, just a few miles away at the old Veterans Memorial Coliseum on July 29, 2000. He had come to Arizona because he had been told he would not be licensed in Nevada. At the time, everybody from leading media personalities to late Senator John McCain openly questioned whether Chavez could still fight. Rather than risk a license denial in Nevada, he applied for one in Arizona. It was granted.
Chavez Jr. was in good spirits only after salvaging his fight with Daniel Jacobs by renegotiating their deal after Chavez was unable to make weight. Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing USA
The card drew a capacity crowd. Tzyu overwhelmed Chavez, stopping him in the sixth round. Chavez left the arena, refusing to submit to a drug test. There were reports in The Arizona Republic that 100 DEA agents were in the crowd, looking for suspects alleged to be in the drug trade. It was a wild night. Controversial, from start to finish.
If it sounds familiar, it is. The Nevada Commission suspended Chavez Jr. for allegedly refusing a drug test in late October. That’s when Matchroom Promotions moved the card to Arizona and Chavez Jr. filed a suit, winning an injunction.
Meanwhile, controversy still sells. Promoter Eddie Hearn says ticket sales have been brisk in the couple of days since the injunction. He expects a crowd of 10,000. But more wouldn’t be a surprise to anybody who knows the Phoenix market. It’s a walk-up town. A couple of thousand showed up at Veterans Memorial Coliseum a few hours before Chavez-Tszyu nearly 20 years ago.
It could happen all over again. The geography, some of the circumstances and last name are the same. But only the son can change the result and make that bird fly.
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 …
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.
Daniel Jacobs will be fighting for the first time as a full-fledged 168-pounder against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Friday in Phoenix. Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing USA
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.’’
Daniel Jacobs is honoring the late Patrick Day with a special robe he plans to wear into the ring on Dec. 20.
All Day Patrick Day
Those are the words, inscribed at the top and bottom of a robe introduced this week by Daniel Jacobs.
Words to live by. Words to fight for.
Jacobs will fight in memory of his old friend on Dec. 20 at Talking Stick Arena in Phoenix. For now, he is scheduled to face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. But that could change, subject to a lawsuit Chavez has filed in Nevada in an attempt to get a ruling that will allow him to fight in Arizona despite his suspension in Nevada for refusing to undergo a drug test.
The opponent doesn’t seem to matter much. Instead, Jacobs’ heartfelt fight to honor a fallen friend is the story.
“Boxing is not the same,’’ Jacobs said when the super middleweight fight was announced.
But feelings for Day are unchanged, stronger than ever since Day died four days after suffering brain trauma in a fight on Oct. 12.
“The robe is symbolic of what he meant to me,” Jacobs said in a conference call.
Jacobs introduced the robe and trunks on social media this week. In addition to All Day, Patrick Day, there is picture of the middleweight, a Rest in Paradise inscription and the dates of his short life, 1992-2019.
The grief is still there, Jacobs said. But he is also prepared to re-enter the ring and confront the dangers that killed a friend.
“I know he would want me to not be sad, to be an inspiration in the ring,’’ said Jacobs, who plans to give the robe and trunks to Day’s family. “That’s who he was. We sparred numerous times in the ring, spent countless hours together. He was a beautiful person, and I know he would want me to keep moving forward.”
Georgia football kicker Rodrigo Blankenship named finalist for prestigious award
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Rodrigo Blankenship, the beloved senior kicker for the Georgia Bulldogs, has been named a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, along with two other collegiate players.
Per a press release from Mitchell Communications Group:
“The Burlsworth Trophy is awarded to the most outstanding college football player in America who began his career as a walk on.”
In addition to Blankenship, University of California Running Safety/Kick Returner Ashtyn Davis, and Michigan State Defensive End Kenny Willekes were also named finalists for the award.
The 3 finalists will be honored and the winner of the 2019 Burlsworth Trophy will be announced on December 9th, at 12:45 p.m. at a luncheon in Springdale, Ark. hosted by the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation in conjunction with the Springdale Rotary Club, per the release.
The trophy is named in honor of Brandon Burlsworth. Without one D1 scholarship offer, Brandon walked on to the Razorback team in 1994, worked his way to being a three-year starter and was eventually named an All-American in 1998. Burlsworth was selected as the 63rd overall pick by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1999 NFL draft, but was tragically killed in a car accident 11 days later. The Burlsworth Foundation was created in his memory and supports the physical and spiritual needs of children, in particular those children who have limited opportunities.
(All information courtesy of Mitchell Communications Group and the Burlsworth Trophy Foundation)
