Hearn wants Daniel Jacobs vs. Spike O’Sullivan on April.28

By Scott Gilfoid: Daniel Jacobs’s promoter Eddie Hearn is targeting Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan (27-2, 19 KOs) for his next fight on April 28 on HBO at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
It’s a predictable move on Matchroom Sport promoter Hearn’s part in trying to get the 33-year-old O’Sullivan, following his 7th round knockout win over middleweight contender Antoine Douglas last month on December 16 on the undercard of the middleweight clash between WBO 160lb. champion Billy Joe Saunders and David Lemieux at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada.

O’Sullivan overpowered the 25-year-old Douglasikn stopping him in 7 rounds. It was a good win for O’Sullivan, but nothing that would indicate that he would do well against someone like Jacobs.

I don’t think Hearn has his head on straight. He’s supposed to be trying to build Jacobs into a star in the U.S, not the UK. When Hearn took the job as Jacobs’ new promoter, he was blabbering about how he was going to turn him into a big star in the U.S by matching him against the best, and tell his story. But thus far, Hearn has not been producing. He’s matched Jacobs against an obscure Luis Arias last November, and that turned out to be a dull 12 round decision win for Jacobs. Now Hearn is trying to get Irish fighter Gary O’Sullivan for Jacobs to fight. It doesn’t make sense.

I guess Hearn is having a demanding time adjusting to promoting a U.S fighter rather than someone from the UK. If Jacobs was trying to make it big in England, then a fight against O’Sullivan would be fantastic, but that’s not the case. Jacobs is from the U.S, and he needs someone that resonates in that country with the fans over there. That means Hearn needs to be biting the bullet by matching Jacobs against one of the Charlo brothers or Demetrius Andrade. If Jacobs loses, he loses.

Hearn has been banging the drum about how Jacobs is the best fighter in the middleweight division. If that’s the case, then there’s no way on earth that he’ll lose to a fighter like Charlo, Andrade and Derevyanchenko. Of course, if Hearn has just been talking to try and get attention from the boxing fans and media without really believing that Jacobs is the best, then he probably should be trying to match him against a safe pick in O’Sullivan instead of a talent like Jermall Charlo, Andrade or Derevyanchenko.

Earlier today, Matchroom Sport asked the boxing fans on Twitter, who they want to see Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) fight next for his April 28th fight, and overwhelmingly they picked O’Sullivan. I’m not too sure why the fans selected O’Sullivan, beause he basically quit in his 7th round retirement loss to Chris Eubank Jr. on December 12, 2015. O’Sullivan retired on his stool in that fight. He was only throwing punches for the first 3 rounds. After the 3, O’Sullivan looked gassed out and timid. All I can think is that maybe it’s the casual boxing fans that made the choice of picking O’Sullivan over the arguably more talented Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade and Sergey Derevyanchenko.

If Jacobs is going to fight anyone of note on April 28, he should be fighting Charlo, Andrade or Derevyanchenko. I’m just saying. It was nice seeing O’Sullivan pick up a win over Douglas last month on December 16, but it’s not as if he was fighting one of the talents in the middleweight division. Douglas has been recently knocked out by Avtandil Khurtsidze by a 10th round knockout on March 5, 2016. Khurtsidze did a better job of dominating Douglas throughout the entire fight than O’Sullivan did. O’Sullivan was struggling in the first 4 rounds against Douglas.

Jacobs has the following ranked at middleweight: #2 WBA, #3 WBC, #4 WBO, and #5 IBF. Jacobs wants a crack at the winner of the May 5th rematch between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez. I’m not sure if Jacobs is going to get a shot against either of them though, because the winner of that fight will likely go in the direction of WBO 160lb strap holder Billy Joe Saunders. He’s the finesse champion holding the WBO strap, and by the easy mark in terms of the belt holders.

The belt is waiting to be scooped up by the Canelo-GGG winner. The only thing they need to do is make sure they bring their track shoes with them when they face Saunders, because they’re going to need to chase him around the ring all night long. Some boxing fans like to point out that David Lemieux didn’t land a single hard power shot all night long on Saunders in their fight last month, but that’s because he was running all night.

O’Sullivan is ranked #13 WBA at middleweight. He’s a fringe contender in other words. O’Sullivan has a 5-fight winning streak going for him since his loss to Eubank Jr. in 2015.

O’Sullivan’s best wins of his 10-year pro career have come against these fighters:

• Nick Quigley

• Antoine Douglas

• Jamie Barboza

• Anthony Fitzgerald

• Melvin Bentancourt

• Milton Nunez

In addition to his loss to Eubank Jr. in 2015, O’Sullivan was soundly beaten by Billy Joe Saunders by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in July 1013. At least O’Sullivan didn’t quit on his stool in that fight. It’s shocking how little O’Sullivan had done during his 10-year pro career. He’s been involved in 2 fights involving world class guys, and he lost both of those fights.

I’d like to see Hearn show some backbone by matching Jacobs against a good middleweight instead of him looking for another soft job against from the fringe level ranks. Hearn can better than O’Sullivan, can’t he? I mean, if Jacobs is really the best middleweight in the division like Hearn has been yapping about, then he should be able to beat Jermall Charlo, Andrade or Derevyanchenko without any problems. Hearn could throw some money at Charlo’s twin brother Jermell Charlo and have him move up and take on Jacobs on April 28. That would be a fun fight, Jermell vs. Jacobs. I can’t see Jacobs winning though, but it would be a fun fight nonetheless.