As most fight fans already know, middleweight prospect/contender Danny Jacobs (27-1 24KO’s) will be facing Jarrod Fletcher (18-1 10KO’s) this upcoming Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn NY. The bout will be aired live on Showtime.
Like most other fans, I am extremely disappointed in this upcoming boxing card in Brooklyn. I view every single fight as a showcase/mismatch and I hope Showtime decides to never put on a card like this ever again. Aside from me never hearing about Jarrod Fletcher in my life I have no idea what either fighter has done to deserve a title shot. Fletcher hasn’t defeated anybody of note and has suffered a loss against Billy Joe Saunders who was just 14-0 at the time.
Danny Jacobs on the other hand got destroyed by Dmitry Pirog back in 2010 and has since gone on to win 7 consecutive fights against sub par opposition. But aside from two undeserving fighters fighting for a world title, the real WBA middleweight champion (Gennady Golovkin) got stripped of his title and got raised to “Super Champion” status by the WBA so Jacobs and Fletcher can have a “title” to fight for. When sanctioning bodies do this it diminishes their credibility in my eyes.
But since what is done is done, I as a fan at least expect the winner of Saturday’s fight to immediately challenge the real WBA champion in Golovkin. I also expect the WBA as a sanctioning body to enforce this. However, more importantly I also expect boxing fans to expect and enforce this as well. The reasons why fights like Lomachenko v Russell was made because the WBO enforced it and because of that fans were treated to a quality featherweight bout. Boxing is in a vulnerable enough position as it is and in my opinion this sport that I love is suffering a slow death in America. If sanctioning bodies are going to approve a fight like Jacobs v Fletcher for a world title, I at least expect the winner of that fight to go on and fight the “Super” champion.
