Daniel Jacobs and Gabe Rosado exchanged trash talk for some time ahead of their super middleweight meeting, but that proved to be better than the contest itself as Jacobs took a drab split decision win in a fight that failed to catch fire at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on Friday night.
Former middleweight world champion, Jacobs (37-3, 30 KOs) was coming off an 11 month lay-off when he easily defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, while Rosado (25-13-1, 14 KOs) had also had the same time away from the ring, last seen defeating Humberto Ochoa over ten in December 2019.
Rosado is usually involved in tear-ups and decisions that unluckily go against him, but here, he elected to be tactical for the first couple of rounds, as the action, what little of it there was, was cagey.
Jacobs banked most of the early sessions with his body work, and pierced Rosado’s guard on occasion to catch the eye.
The sixth and seventh saw the New York native up his work rate, going to his rival’s body and landing with a left hook up top in the sixth, and a couple of right hands found the mark in the seventh.
‘Miracle Man’ though was guilty of not sensing the urgency in the later rounds, as he allowed the Philadelphia man to come back into the argument with his busyness and higher will to win.
It seemed all to play for in the closing rounds, but Jacobs clearly didn’t see things that way, and he allowed Rosado to have success, notably with a hard, straight right hand in the eleventh. The final frame saw both land. But the bout went to the judges.
Two scores of 115-113 for Jacobs trumped a third score by the same margin for Rosado.
Jacobs stock certainly didn’t rise as a result of his drab win. His contract with Matchroom USA and DAZN ended after this fight, and he will need to convince paymasters for shots at the likes of WBO champion, Billy Joe Saunders, or IBF champion, Caleb Plant. Jacobs did acknowledge his poor performance post-fight.
“I didn’t think I gave the best performance,” Jacobs told DAZN.
“I thought I could have done better. The atmosphere was a little weird, there was nothing to really pump you up, it felt like a sparring match inside the gym.
“I got a split decision. He’s a game opponent, but I don’t think it was that close by far.
“I guess me being a little stagnant makes the judges give this sort of decision.”
Yeleussinov destroys Indongo in two rounds
Daniyar Yeleussinov (10-0, 6 KOs) scored the best win of his career as he blasted out former unified Super Lightweight world champion, Julius Indongo inside two rounds.
This one was at Welterweight, and Indongo (23-3, 12 KOs) came out swinging, to his cost, as the opening round saw him nailed with a hard, counter left hand during an exchange which dropped the Namibian.
The writing was on the wall, and the Kazakh landed another hard left in round two that robbed Indongo of his senses, and as he tried to regain them he tottered towards the corner where the fight was waved off.
Emmanuel Tagoe got the better of his Lightweight contest with Mason Menard (36-5, 25 KOs), taking a majority decision over ten rounds.
A tally of 95-95 was overruled by scores of 96-94 and 98-92 as Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs) edged towards a world title shot, holding a #5 ranking with the WBO.
Majidov marches on
Heavyweight prospect Mahammadrasul Majidov was dominant in a third round stoppage of Sahret Delgado.
Majidov, (3-0, 3 KOs) who beat Tom Little in Saudi Arabia on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s victory over Andy Ruiz Jr in December, hurt Salgado (8-1, 7 KOs) in the opener with a hard right hand, and the end wasn’t far in coming.
Majidov rained in unanswered punches on the ropes in the third, and, after he trapped Salgado again, a big right hand buzzed the Puerto Rican, and the referee was perfectly placed to step in.
At super middleweight, Nikita Ababiy (10-0, 6 KOs) remained undefeated with a six round unanimous decision win against Brandon Maddox (7-4-1, 5 KOs).
Three scores of 59-55 moved the Brooklyn resident to ten unbeaten.
