Derevyanchenko’s only chance of beating Jacobs is to brawl says Algieri

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Chris Algieri is confident that Daniel Jacobs will defeat the dangerous Sergiy Derevyanchenko on Saturday night in their fight for the vacant IBF middleweight title on HBO World Championship Boxing at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Jacobs and Sergiy made weight on Friday. However, they still need to make the IBF’s 10-lb rehydration rule on Saturday morning for the secondary weight check. Both fighters can come into the weigh-in no more than 170 lbs. Algieri is assuring the boxing public that Jacobs will make the 170 lb weight limit, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be sluggish during the fight on Saturday night, because he’s the heavier fighter of the two, so the secondary weigh-in will hurt him a lot more than Derevyanchenko. This is the first time in Jacobs’ 11-year pro career that he’s had to deal with a rehydration limit, and it could hurt him by leaving him weak during the fight. Jacobs had an IBF mandated 10 lb rehydration rule for his fight against Gennady Golovkin last year in march 2017, but Danny skipped the weigh-in so that he could get an advantage over GGG. It was a sneaky move by Jacobs to attempt to get an edge against Golovkin, but it didn’t work well enough for him to win. Jacobs was clearly the much bigger fighter of the two on the night, but he didn’t have the right game plan to win. Jacobs can’t skip the IBF’s secondary weigh-in on Saturday morning because he needs to win the IBF title so that he can become one of the world champions at 160. The IBF belt is an important title that will help Jacobs’ career.

Algieri is the nutritionist for Jacobs (34-2, 29 KOs), and he’s watched him train and he feels that he’s got the win in the bag based on his size, power, talent and boxing skills. In fact, Algieri is only giving the 5’9′ Derevyanchenko a puncher’s chance of winning. Algieri thinks this is Jacobs’ fight to lose based on him being the better athlete than the 2008 Ukrainian Olympian.

“There’s no question this is a very dangerous fight,” Algieri said to Fighthype about the Jacobs vs. Derevyanchenko fight. “Sergiy Derevyanchenko is one of the best in the world. I’ve seen him first hand in the gym. I’ve seen him sparring with Daniel. He’s very, very good, Danny’s a whole different animal. He’s a whole different animal than all these guys in the division. He can do things that the other guys in the world can’t, and I remind him of that all the time,” Algieri said.

Jacobs has yet to prove that he can do things that the other fighters in the middleweight division can’t. He lost to Dmitry Pirog and Gennady Golovkin. Sergio Mora had Jacobs down in their first fight. That was supposed to be a tune-up for Jacobs, but it turned out to be a really difficult fight until Mora suffered an injury.

Algieri is correct about Derevyanchenko, 32, being a dangerous opponent for Jacobs due to his punching power and skills. Derevyanchenko has had a lot of time to note the weaknesses in Jacobs’ game, as he’s sparred with him over 300 rounds in the past. The two share the same trainer, so they know each other well. Out of all that time, the two fighters have learned what works in sparring. But on Saturday, it’s going to be the real thing with no head gear and large sparring gloves.

“We have little talks in the morning at breakfast, ‘Listen, dude. You can do things that other guys can’t,” Algieri said about Jacobs. “The Canelos, the Triple Gs, you’ve got something special.’ If he [Jacobs] goes out and does the things we’ve seen him do in the camp, all those fights are easy,” Algieri said.

Jacobs has got to raise his game from what we’ve seen in his last two fights against Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki. Jacobs didn’t look like the fighter that Algieri is describing him to be, as appears to have lost a part of his game since he was beaten by Golovkin in March 2017. Jacobs, 31, still denies that he deerve the loss, but that’s no longer important. The judges gave GGG the victory, and it’s useless for Jacobs to continue to tell boxing fans that he won. What’s important is the deterioration that Jacobs has shown since his loss to GGG. Jacobs isn’t as dynamic since that fight. He struggled in his last fight to beat junior middleweight Maciej Sulecki by a 12 round decision. Jacobs won the fight but he was held to a standstill by Sulecki.

“Sergiy is another one of those guys with a tremendous amateur background,” Algieri said. “He’s got lot of ways he can win a fight. But Derevyanchenko’s best chance is to get in a brawl with Danny. Danny has the reach advantage, speed advantage, the power advantage, and the boxing skills advantage, On paper, Danny wins at everything, but fights are fought on paper,” Algieri said.

The way Algieri is talking, it sounds like he’s brain-washed himself and Jacobs thinking that it’s going to be an easy thing to defeat Derevyanchenko. The reality is this is a fight that Jacobs could easily lose. To start with, Jacobs’ punch resistance is not what it needs to be for him to defeat a fighter with the kind of punching power that Derevyanchenko possesses. Jacobs is going to need to stay out of the way of Derevyanchenko for the entire fight, because if he puts hands on him, he could hurt him and get him out of there. Derevyanchenko is a braver fighter than GGG in this writer’s opinion. You can say that the only reason Jacobs wasn’t knocked out by Golovkin last year is because GGG fought defensively by staying on the outside jabbing and not going after Jacobs. Derevyanchenko is going to be looking to KO Jacobs the entire fight, because that’s how he fights. It’s going to be brutally hard for Danny. If he can’t handle getting hit hard by Derevyanchenko’s heavy shots, he’s going to implode almost immediately. Derevyancheko is probably the second hardest puncher than Jacobs has fought during his career, and it’s going to be a real problem for him.

”He [Jacobs] will be 170 tomorrow, because this world title fight is very, very important,” Algieri said. ”We planned a strategy for that at training camp. I’ve known coming in what the IBF rules was with the 10 lb [rehydration] rule, so we’re prepared. We’re prepared to make weight again tomorrow, and not only make sure Danny makes weight, but is healthy and ready to perform,” Algieri said.

It’s likely that Jacobs will make the 170 lb weigh-in limit on Saturday for the secondary weight check, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to win the fight. It’s going to be very difficult for Jacobs to have to wait until after the weigh-in for him to start rehydrating, and it’s likely that he won’t be as big as he’s been in recent years.

”That’s a good fight for boxing,” Algieri said about the rumored fight between Canelo and Jacobs in May 2019. ”That’s a good fight for Danny. That’s a good fight for Canelo. That’s a good fight for fans, for all of us. Fingers crossed on that one. Let’s make that fight happen. Danny beats Canelo, because Danny is the stronger man. He’s definitely the stronger man, and I think he’s more dynamic. Canelo is a very dynamic puncher in terms of his offense, but I think Danny can do so many different things. It’s a great fight. I think the way Canelo fought GGG the second time was phenomenal. That was an awesome fight. That was an incredible performance, but I still think Danny beat GGG [more impressively]. I thought GGG won’t the first fight with Canelo for sure, hands down. The second fight was very, very close. But I think Daniel has a more definitive win over GGG than Canelo does,” Algieri said.