Less than 24 hours before Dan Rafael puts another prospect on a stretcher!

I never understood the hype with Jacobs he wasn't **** to begin with. Far more better prospects out there Lara comes to mind.

 

You say that but then there would be people saying all he's fighting are bums. Also, Pirog, to the average fan was expected to lose.

 

Actually I think its awesome that GBP is putting their prospects in tough earlier. They are actually taking risks and letting actual boxing matches separate the jokes from the real deals.

 

Ha. Agree with Brickhaus. Rafael is one of the few boxing writers with journalistic accountability, but that's really all he's good for. His scoring is bunk, and his analysis of fights and fighters is worse than at least 25% of the people who post at ESB.

He's probably going to end up OK on Khan, and obviously Cotto, Taylor and Berto are fine. Peter isn't awful.

The problem is that he gets swept away by aggressive power. If a prospect blows out a series of C-fighters or worse, Rafael is very impressed by that. He doesn't credit the more subtle talent of boxers or even boxer-punchers.

I think the most egregious example the past few years was choosing Joel Julio over Chad Dawson. Julio had been knocking out nobodies but obviously was limited, while Dawson very impressively outclassed Ian Gardner on Shobox. I emailed him during his chats at the time asking him to defend his choice, but he never did.

There are other examples, too. He needs to stop relying so much on Top Rank and GBP.

 

Im calling this the best post I ever read on this website.

 

are you kidding me?

jacobs had a stellar amateur career, promoters were fighting over who would sign him.

 

its a bad idea, boxers are human they need to learn as they get older/better

look at what top rank did with cotto/floyd/de la hoya

they matched those fighters up perfectly, each time increasing the level of opposition little by little, they matched those fighters up with every kind of style, in boxing you have to learn on the job, ortiz/jacobs didn't get that chance and were fed to the sharks.

 

I saw Jacobs fight live here in Houston on the JMM-Diaz undercard and didn't see anything special with him. I'm sorry I'm not blown away by Jacobs never have been. There are far more better prospects out there than Jacobs.

 

you saw him get the **** beat out of him, obviously you're not gonna be impressed, plus this pirog guy is a bad mofo.

 

These prospects' of the year get a lot of hype so they also have to deal with the pressure of getting into tougher fights earlier than they could otherwise. When fans hear about you everyday and see that you haven't fought anyone as yet, they start demanding that you step it up to justify the hype. This can make promoters put these guys in a tougher fight than they are ready for. Promoters have to be careful how they bring these guys up because one loss changes everything- boxing fans are harsh and they can't stand the "0" going away

 

Ortiz, Khan, and Jacobs are all Golden Boy fighters. It makes me wonder if anybody with a brain scouted their opponents. You guys who have been on ESB for some time probably know what I think about bringing a prospect up. CAUTION is the watch word.

And speaking of caution, this thread actually validates my arguments against putting Pirog in with a top guy any time soon. Chronologically Pirog is old for a prospect. He's 30 years of age, but he has only been a professional for 5 years, and has a whopping 92 rounds under his belt. In ring years Pirog is fresh as a daisy, and probably isn't even close to peaking. If Pirog's people put him in with a top guy right off the bat, that guy will make Pirog look like what he is: A Prospect. That is the wrong thing to do with an extremely talented fighter. I'd tell you to ask Davey Moore about that, but Davey is dead, and he died broke!

 

I saw him go life and death with Ishe Smith on that undercard. The guy is simply too flawed to be awarded prospect of the year. For example, Lara is a much more complete and better fighter.

 

You're exaggerating more than a bit there. Fernando Guerrero you could say went life and death with Ishe Smith. Jacobs won a pretty darn clear 97-93 decision where he got hit a few more times than he should have.

He has great handspeed and footspeed, can throw 80 punches a round for a sustained period of time, and obviously not a spectacular beard. Some improvements to his defense, and he'll do just fine. He just needs a trainer who can get him to focus better and keep his hands up.

 

Maybe but he wasn't impressive at all, **** defense and bad technique, he was incredibly flawed IMO. I left saying he's okay nothing special better prospects out there.