Former IBF and WBA middleweight champion Danny Jacobs will be moving up to 168 to face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. this Friday, December 20 at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
The fight was original supposed to be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas but had to be relocated to Arizona after Chavez Jr. refused to submit to Voluntary Anti-Doping Association testing, resulting in a suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Eddie Hearn expressed displeasure with Chavez Jr’s failure to test, but soon thereafter they were approved to fight in Arizona.
This will be our first time seeing Danny Jacobs in the ring since his unanimous decision loss to Canelo Alvarez in April of this year. The fight was relatively uneventful and resulted in fairly close scorecards of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. Similar to other fights, Jacobs started slow, dug himself into a hole and could not catch up. Jacobs has a record of 35-3, with 29 knockouts.
Chavez Jr. also took a loss to Canelo Alvarez in May of 2017. In comparison, Canelo completely outclassed Chavez Jr. in what was a very poor showing. After this loss, Chavez took some time off from the sport, not returning until August of this year, when he beat Evert Bravo with a first-round knockout. Chavez has a record of 51-3-1, with 33 knockouts.
Chavez comes into the fight the bigger man, but Danny Jacobs is the all-around better boxer. Jacobs last five fights are against Gennadiy Golovkin, Luis Arias, Maciej Sulecki, Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Canelo Alvarez. Chavez Jr. represents a step-down in opposition for Jacobs.
Also on the card is a matchup between Julio Cesar Martinez and Cristofer Rosales for the vacant WBC flyweight title and Gabriel Rosado versus Humberto Gutierrez Ochoa.
Flip the page for the video of the presser.