Canelo Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) Vs. Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) UNIFICATION FIGHT ON CINCO DE MAYO WEEKEND- The sport’s biggest star Canelo Alvarez once again looks to challenge himself to defends his WBC, WBA, Lineal and Ring Magazine Middleweight World Titles in a 12-round unification fight against IBF Middleweight World Champion Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs during the now fight weekend of Cinco de Mayo.
The champion-vs.-champion event will take place Saturday, May 4, 2019 and will be streamed exclusively live on DAZN. Additional details for the event, including venue and ticket information, will be announced shortly.
In Canelo’s last bout, Canelo became a three-division world champion by toying and knocking out Rocky Fielding in three rounds to capture a version of the WBA Super Middleweight World Title in December 2018. Against Jacobs, Canelo will return to middleweight for this fight as he continues to clean out the 160-pound division.
“I’m happy to announce my next fight during the festive weekend of Cinco de Mayo,” said Canelo Alvarez. “I will unify my middleweight titles against Daniel Jacobs on one of the two most important dates that belong to me. I have no doubt that I will be victorious and that I’ll be one step away from becoming the undisputed middleweight world champion. And what better way to watch it than on as tremendous a platform as DAZN.”
“This is the opportunity I have been waiting for. The opportunity to achieve greatness inside the ring,” said Daniel Jacobs. “I have always believed I can beat Canelo, and on May 4 live on DAZN, I will get my chance to play it out. It’s been nearly four years since Canelo has faced an American challenger. It’s going to be a huge event where I believe I will cement myself as the best middleweight in the division.”
“Canelo Alvarez wants the best fights and the biggest challenges,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “That’s what he did as the 154-pound champion, and that’s what he’s doing now as the king of the middleweight division. We are also proud to demonstrate to boxing fans that this new partnership with DAZN means that fans will get pay-per-view level fights without the cost of pay-per-view. Golden Boy Promotions is continuing its promise to make the sport as accessible as possible by putting this champion-vs.-champion fight on the platform.”
“What a fight! I can’t tell you how happy I am that Danny Jacobs gets this opportunity to fight Canelo on Cinco de Mayo in a massive unification fight,” said Eddie Hearn, Managing Director of Matchroom Sport. “Victory would cap one of the most incredible, inspirational boxing stories of our generation, and Danny and the team will be putting everything in place to lead him to victory. Respect to Canelo and Golden Boy for accepting this challenge, and congratulations to DAZN and their subscribers for getting this incredible fight with no extra cost. Let’s go May 4! Let’s go Daniel Jacobs!”
“On any other network or platform, Canelo vs. Jacobs would be an expensive pay-per-view,” said Joseph Markowski, DAZN EVP of North America. “At DAZN, we believe the best fights should be available to our subscribers at no extra charge.”
Canelo vs. Jacobs is a 12-round fight for the WBC, WBA, Lineal, Ring Magazine and IBF Middleweight World Titles presented by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Matchroom Boxing. The event is sponsored by Tecate, “THE OFFICIAL BEER OF BOXING” and Hennessy “Never Stop. Never Settle.” The event will take place Saturday, May 4, 2019 and will be streamed live on DAZN.
For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com
Manny Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) Vs. Adrien Broner (33-3-1, one no contest, 24 KOs) Fight Prediction- No real need in me romancing this one so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Broner is who he is, he’s a talent that never reached his true potential, Broner has speed, strength, and puts together punches well, but against same or next tier fighters he tends to go a bit gun shy and goes into a shell as he did against Maidana, Porter, Malignaggi, Vargas, Grenados, and Mikey Garcia.
So against Pacquiao, Broner could be a sitting duck since Pacquiao even at 40 years old is always looking to mix it up and fires punches in bunches. Broner must make the most out of the space being given and needs to really use his jab,go to the body often, and shoot a right uppercut when in close. Truth is, I don’t see Broner doing just that, I see Pacquiao outworking Broner to take it by a 116-112 unanimous decision in a somewhat entertaining fight with some sloppy rounds in between. If Broner can’t time Pacquiao jumping in, Broner may find himself knocked down facing adversity by picking himself off the canvas eating a Pacquiao straight left.
It all goes down tomorrow night January 19 for Pacquiao’s WBA (regular) welterweight championship at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Fights now set for Phoenix local fighters- Ray Beltran (35-8-1, 21 KOs), of Phoenix returns to the ring and shall return as a junior welterweight to face Hiroki Okada(19-0, 13 KOs) on Feb. 10 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. And on the ESPN+ portion of the card will treat us to junior featherweight contender Genesis Servania (32-1, 15 KOs) locking horns against Carlos Castro (21-0, 9 KOs) of Phoenix.
The fight card will be headlined by junior welterweight world champ Jose Ramirez as he clashes against Jose Zepeda, the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card (ESPN and ESPN Deportes, 7 p.m., with full card streaming on ESPN+ beginning at 4 p.m. ET).
Return of David Benavidez- Former WBC Super Middleweight champ, and Phoenix’s very own, 22 year old David Benavidez(20-0, 17 KO’s) will face 168-pound contender J’Leon Love on the co-main event for the March 16 on pay-per-view, set to take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The main event of that pay-per-view will be the much anticipated clash between Errol Spence Jr. vs. Mikey Garcia. With Caleb Plant fresh off of his tough fight in beating and taking the IBF super middleweight from Jose Uzcategui, you can expect to see Benavidez pursuing a clash against Plant in the near future. But there is still a lot of room between the lip and the cup before a Benavidez/Plant fight comes to fruition since Plant may have other plans and Benavidez must first get through J’ Leon Love.