Daniel Jacobs defeats Gabriel Rosado in biggest letdown of 2020

Daniel Jacobs and Gabriel Rosado have years of trash talking between them. Unfortunately, it fell flat as Jacobs damaged his reputation despite winning. 

Daniel Jacobs and Gabriel Rosado had many negative things to say about each other before their Nov. 27 bout, but their pre-fight words proved infinitely more entertaining than their actual fight.

Jacobs (37-3, 30 KOs) is a former two-division champion having won titles as a middleweight and super middleweight, but he looked like a shell of the fighter that pushed Canelo Alvarez to a close decision loss in 2018. Based on his performance against Rosado, he doesn’t deserve to fight any of the top super middleweights.

Rosado (25-12-1, 14 KOs) doesn’t have a sterling record, but he’s known for trading punches in bloody battles. He had legendary trainer Freddie Roach in his corner, and he fought intelligently against Jacobs, but it wasn’t enough to win their matchup.

Listening to Jacobs and Rosado belittle each other leading up to their fight, you would have thought they would have gone out for blood. Instead, they seldomly threw punches from the outside and usually one at a time.

There were no highlights in this fight. Not a single one. “Placid” is a great way to describe this fight. With the few punches that Jacobs landed, you could hear his power. The problem is that he barely let his hands go.

Daniel Jacobs vs. Gabriel Rosado might be the most disappointing boxing matchup od 2020

Rosado jabbed and boxed sensibly but needed to be more accurate if he wanted to secure the win. He fought defensively but too guarded to take over a fight that Jacobs nearly handed him on a silver platter.

The ring announcer announced the winner as coming from Philadelphia, so Rosado started to celebrate since that’s his hometown. Then, the announcer caught his mistake and announced Jacobs as the winner by split decision. The botched call just added to the futility of this contest.

Rosado looked better defensively than in the past but lacked the killer instinct he’s known for. Jacobs just looked awful. According to CompuBox, Jacobs landed 78 out of 339 punches. He didn’t land more than 9 punches in any round. That’s horrid for a former IBF super middleweight champion. It’s unlikely that he’ll ever be called champion again.

The sad part is that Jacobs doesn’t seem to understand how dreadful his performance was.

“I don’t think I gave the best performance,” said Jacobs in the post-fight interview. “I thought I could of did a little bit better.”

That’s the understatement of the year. Jacobs might land one more big fight, but he doesn’t look like he has any chance of beating anyone rated in the top 10.