Danny Jacobs wants to be known as more than the first fighter ever who survived cancer and went on to win a world title.
The Brownsville boxer would like to be viewed as one of the sport’s rising stars who is on the cusp of becoming an elite player.
“Not to say my story isn’t one of those feel-good stories you always want to promote to the people, but I think I’m past that point where that needs to be headline,” Jacobs said.
The World Boxing Association middleweight champion will get the toughest test of his career when he steps into the ring with veteran Sergio Mora at Barclays Center on August 1. It is the co-main event on the Premier Boxing Champions card headlined by battle between Paulie Malignaggi and Danny Garcia broadcast live on ESPN. A victory could launch Jacobs’s career to the next level.
“I think 2016 will be a really, really big year,” he said. “It will be the year where I will fight the names the fans always wanted me to fight. It will be my coming out party, my chance to display what I have always known I had inside all along.”
Even in his last fight, a 12th technical knockout of Caleb Truax in April, he said the attention was too much on the past on not the present and future. Jacobs believes he has done enough for everyone to look at him as more than just a cancer survivor who is beating the odds along with his opponents. Jacobs, who is a regular visitor to cancer hospitals, isn’t running from his story. He just wants to focus on his work in the ring when it is time to fight.
Jacobs is 29–1 overall, and 7–0 since returning to the ring after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. All seven of those wins have come via knockout.
“Me being a world champion with the skill set that I have, with my knockout ratio and my being the champion, I think it should be at the forefront,” Jacobs said. “I think we need to talk about who is going to be coming up in the division.”
His stardom is being aided by a budding broadcast career. Jacobs has been on air about 10 times, including twice filling in for Malignaggi as a ringside analyst. His latest appearance came as a corner analyst when Amir Khan fought Chris Algieri in May live on Spike TV. Not only is broadcasting a way to set up his future, but it helps him build his brand and his relationship with fans.
“Then when they finally see me it is, ‘Oh, he is really good, too,’ ” Jacobs said.
He has enjoyed his time on the other side of the ropes, but the toughest part is putting into layman terms how and what a fighter might be thinking at a given point in the bout. Malignaggi, now a veteran behind a mic, is impressed with how well Jacobs comes across to the fans.
“I think he has a terrific presence on television,” he said. “He comes off very well. He is also knowledgeable … It keeps you relevant. In the grand scheme of things, you are not going to fight for a long time.”
Jacobs still has some goals left to fulfill in the ring, and accomplishing those means beating the unorthodox and crafty Mora. He called the Los Angeles native one of the toughest people he’s ever had to prepare for in his career because Mora doesn’t now have a distinct style.
It’s that upcoming challenge that Jacobs thinks should be the focus — for him and the media — not the challenges he has already overcome.
“I can never get tired of [of my story],” Jacobs said. “But the end of the day, I do want my skill and my overall boxing ability to be the talk.”
