Brooklyn’s Jacobs continues comeback

Local middleweight to headline Fox Sports 1 debut boxing card

July 24, 2013 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Danny Jacobs has been in nearly this exact place in his boxing career before.

On the precipice of emerging as one of the bright young stars in the dog-eat-dog world of professional pugilism, Jacobs suffered his only career loss to Dmitry Pirog via a 12th-round knockout in Las Vegas during the summer of 2010.

Three years later, having won his last five fights in a row, including a pair at Downtown’s new home of boxing at the Barclays Center, the 26-year-old Brownsville native and Erasmus High School graduate again stands on the threshold of potential greatness.

And making it back to this point in his career this time was twice, if not three times, as hard.

“All this for me? This is amazing. I’m truly blessed,” Jacobs noted during Tuesday’s press conference in Times Square to announce his Aug. 19 headline bout with Giovanni Lorenzo for the currently vacated WBC Continental Americas Middleweight Championship.”God has been with me since day one. I’m fortunate to be here and to have my own main event.”

Jacob’s strong belief in the divine, and his good fortune at landing another shot at a title, aren’t just tied to his career in the ring.

It’s the battle he recently fought and won outside the squared circle that has him gushing with inspiration.

In May of 2011, less than a year after the crushing defeat to Pirog, Jacobs was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, better known as a life-threatening form of bone cancer

The rare malady wasn’t just threatening his life as a fighter, it was threatening his very life.

But with aggressive treatment and unrivaled determination, Jacobs fought his way through the cancer like a true champion.

After knocking out Josh Luteran in the opening round of his return to the ring on the Opening Night card at Barclays last October, and felling Keenan Collins at the Downtown arena just last month, the “Golden Child” is ready to make his name known to a wider audience.

Jacobs, who was in attendance at last Thursday’s media fete for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry at the Barclays, was the main event at the Planet Hollywood setting for Tuesday’s press conference.

The Jacobs-Giovanni bout won’t just be the marquee attraction during next month’s fight card at New York’s Best Buy Theatre, it will also kick off Golden Boy Promotions’ cable television deal with newly formed Fox Sports 1, which will host a Monday Night Golden Boy Live! Boxing Series on the network.

“Two years ago, I was battling a war,” Jacobs said of his health struggles. “I was paralyzed in a hospital battling cancer, so for me to come back and have my own main event in Times Square, it doesn’t get any better than that. I’m fortunate to be a part of this and to be able to say to my son that his daddy was a part of something special.”

Also featured on the Aug. 19 card will be undefeated rising star Eddie Gomez of the Bronx and former U.S. Olympian Marcus Browne of Staten Island.