The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of December 6
What a night for Daniel Jacobs.
The Brooklyn-bred fighter, who last year became the first cancer survivor to win a world championship, drilled his good friend and previously unbeaten "Kid Chocolate" Peter Quillin for a stunning first-round knockout on Saturday night at his hometown Barclays Center.
The result was shocking to the just under 8,500 people inside the arena, and it begs the question: Has Jacobs become a boxing superstar?
We'll give you the answer.
Then we move on to the latest on a Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko rematch, what's happening with Deontay Wilder and the latest on Adrien Broner.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week.
Did Daniel Jacobs Become a Superstar?
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Without a doubt.
Jacobs entered the Barclays Center in his native Brooklyn, New York, as the underdog in most eyes, despite being the defending champion, and shocked the world with a brutal first-round knockout of Quillin, a previously undefeated ex-titlist.
The ending was as sudden as it was shocking.
Jacobs buzzed Quillin early in the opening round with an overhand right and then poured on the punishment, connecting on 27 of 53 punches. That included 25 power shots, according to CompuBox (via ESPN.com's Brian Campbell), leaving his opponent and friend on jello legs and forcing referee Harvey Dock to end the contest.
Some tried to criticize the stoppage as premature, but sitting ringside, you could see that Quillin's eyes were glassy and his stare vacant when the referee intervened. He didn't seem to know where he was and didn't complain about the stoppage.
Jacobs now pushes himself toward the front of a crowded middleweight pack. His knockout percentage (88 percent) isn't that far off from Gennady Golovkin's 91 percent, and no, we're not comparing the two in terms of who is a better fighter, but Danny has now entered the conversation with that type of guy.
He's a top-three middleweight—maybe even top two if you don't consider Canelo Alvarez a real middleweight—with a big following in New York and an inspirational story that can make for exciting fights. The ceiling is pretty high for Jacobs right now.
Would a Fury-Klitschko Rematch Be Any Different?
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Fury toppled the heavyweight division's long-reigning kingpin just about a week ago, and the former champion, who looked confused and lethargic, has exercised his right for an immediate rematch. That obviously presents a lucrative financial opportunity for both men, but will the second verse be any different than the first?
Anything is possible.
An old boxing adage goes that the winner of the first fight usually wins the rematch even more decisively, but there was little decisive to go on based on the first match, and there are plenty of open questions.
Fury won, clearly, and Wlad looked tentative, unwilling to let his hands go and thoroughly unsure of what to do against a bigger man that didn't come forward and allow himself to be bullied. But it was, overall, a pretty terrible fight where one guy did the literal definition of just enough to win a decision.
A deserved decision, yes, but nothing in the realm of dominant or decisive for the towering Brit.
You can expect that Klitschko, so long as the mind is willing and the flesh hasn't become weak, to be a different fighter in the rematch. He's taken a lot of grief, not so much for the loss but for the way he lost, and, crazy as it sounds, one of the most accomplished heavyweights ever has a lot to prove.
It's worth noting that the same goes for Fury, who, despite his win, now has to justify his position as the world's top big man to a skeptical boxing public.
That makes a rematch potentially more compelling and (hopefully) more exciting than the first bout.
Who Will Fight Deontay Wilder?
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Wilder, the WBC heavyweight champion, held a press conference on Saturday afternoon at the Barclays Center before the Jacobs-Quillin result, but we aren't any closer to finding out the towering American champion's next opponent.
Vyacheslav Glazkov, promoted by Main Events, seemed the likely foe before this week when the undefeated Ukrainian elected instead to pursue a mandatory shot at the IBF belt currently held by Fury, a fight that will never happen.
You can understand Glazkov's decision. It's the path of least resistance to a belt, however meaningless.
Fury has less than no interest in that fight, which will head to a purse bid, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, leading to the Brit vacating the alphabet title shortly after winning it and Glazkov fighting a far lesser challenger for a vacant belt.
Wilder and Glazkov were far down the road toward finalizing a fight for January 16 at the Barclays Center, but, with that option off the table and the two biggest names in the division heading toward a contractually mandated rematch, the Bronze Bomber's options appear limited.
That could well lead to another title defense that will disappoint fans, but with the hope that a shot at the lineal champ, either Fury or Klitschko, could shortly be in the offing.
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Why the Hell Is Adrien Broner Actually Fighting Ashley Theophane?
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We honestly thought (hoped?) it was a joke, some gym rivalry or personal thing that would simmer but eventually fade and never lead to a fight that nobody wants to see. A backstory to the fracturing relationship between a pair of fighters with big personalities and even bigger egos but nothing more.
In the post-fight interview following his blowout win over former 140-pound titlist Khabib Allakhverdiev, Broner told Showtime's Jim Gray that he wanted to fight some guy "I think his name is Ashley," per Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook, referencing Ashley Theophane, a journeyman fighter in the Mayweather Promotions stable.
It seemed an odd choice then and now, given Theophane's lack of credentials (he's past his prime and doesn't rate in the top 15 of any of the sanctioning bodies' 140-pound rankings), but, per the Guardian, it's going to happen late in January.
Floyd Mayweather, who recently criticized and was criticized by his "little brother" Broner (a stunning rift given how close they appeared), told the paper that Broner will defend his newly won WBA junior welterweight belt against Theophane this January in Atlanta.
This looks like a grudge match by proxy, but it's also a pretty terrible fight.
Broner received a fair dose of criticism for his world-title opportunity against Allakhverdiev (even from Mayweather) since both men were coming off losses, Adrien's was a bad one, and the Russian had been out of the ring for an extended time.
If this is true, he hasn't seen anything yet.
Broner vs. Theophane is just a bad fight and a clear step back for The Problem.
It's not worth his time or yours.
Also, Why the Hell Is Figueroa-DeMarco Happening?
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Sometimes a guy just doesn't know when to quit, and sometimes he does but can't stick by his decision.
Antonio DeMarco is a fighter who fits into both categories, and, unfortunately, he will do battle with the exciting but somewhat limited Omar Figueroa Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC.
You're not going to find very many 29-year-old fighters who are older than DeMarco, who despite his young age had been through many in-ring wars before deciding to call it a career after a one-sided rout by Rances Barthelemy in June.
It seemed like the right call for a fighter who, while always exciting, was clearly punchy and shopworn after receiving a few frightful beatings. Many guys hang on one fight too long (or several, unfortunately), and the results can be devastating for their health outside of the ring.
But DeMarco unretired less than two months after making the call to take the fight with Figueroa.
Figueroa is an undefeated fighter with a somewhat crude style that makes for exciting fights but probably limits how far he'll be able to climb up the ladder. He doesn't have huge power (most of his knockouts came against overmatched opposition), but he has the activity rate to severely punish the shot DeMarco over 12 rounds.
And that's the last thing DeMarco needs: a guy who can just beat him up for 36 minutes without likely having the power to put him (and us) out of his misery.
Let's all just hope for the best in this one.
Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites.
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