Photos by Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
Saturday night, Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) will face the undefeated Luis “Cuba” Arias (18-0, 9 KOs) at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
This will be Jacobs’ first fight back after a narrow defeat to unified champion Gennady Golovkin in March.
Jacobs is in store for another challenge as he’ll be fighting the hungry 27-year-old Arias–a lot of boxing fans are looking at this as a tune-up fight to a bigger fight for Jacobs, but Arias is prepared to upset him.
Arias feels as though Jacobs is overlooking him and he is eager to shock the boxing world. Arias spoke with ESPN Deportes and he expressed what is motivating him to remain undefeated with a huge victory over Jacobs.
“I am very well trained, strong, ready for a war,” said Arias. “Jacobs is underestimating me, many people do not know me, he does not know me, they think it will be easy, but, in reality, it is going to be a war, this is a great opportunity.”
And Arias isn’t just planning to show up and win, he’s preparing for a knockout.
“With a knockout and a victory I’m going to position my name in a high position in the division and I’m ready,” said Arias.” “I want my name to sound out right next to Canelo, Golovkin. I know that a victory will give me the possibility to fight with them.”
Even though this fight is being viewed by many as simply a tool for Jacobs to perhaps lock down either a rematch with Golovkin or even a fight against Canelo Alvarez, Jacobs has tried to hush the rumors leading up to Saturday night’s fight.
“There is no next target,” said Jacobs. “If I let this guy slip through the cracks, he can mess it all up for me. And then the whole Golovkin, Canelo future plans would be shattered. So I really can’t look past this guy.”
“This guy is a young guy–he’s not really known but he’s hungry, and if he has an out-of-body experience [on Saturday], then it could be all downhill for me,” said Jacobs (per ESPN).
Jacobs is coming off of a loss against Golovkin but he showed impeccable boxing skills with close scores on all three judges cards and though Arias doesn’t have the most evoking resume, he also looked impressive after stopping Arif Magomedov in June.
This isn’t necessarily a boxing fan’s dream matchup–but a lot is on the line as both men look to prove that they deserve to be in the ring with boxing’s top Middleweights.
With that being said, we can expect a very exciting fight. Don’t miss out on Jacobs vs. Arias on HBO Saturday night at 10:00 pm, EST.
