And another great Dwyer prediction..(Pirog vs Jacobs)

As you say - interesting video. While I do think he talks up Pirog's defense a bit in too much in the end (it's untested against elite opposition) and his scoring of the third round surprises me (Jacobs' sticked and moved successfully this round), I otherwise agree completely.

Reading here yesterday about people giving Jacobs particularly the first round baffled me, I must say. There should be no question that Pirog was starting to time his sometimes lazy jab with his own overhand rights already then. How many times did it happen; 3-4 times in only the first? That alone I feel was enough to take the round. Otherwise the round was close with not extremely much happening but with Jacob's having clear problems asserting himself. Pirog was the ring general from scratch and apart from the initial hard right from Jacobs he gave up the centre of the ring far, far too easily.

He also always looked shaky when on the ropes and except for the third, he was unable to avoid them consistently.

Dwyer's spot on with the eye-opener factor of rewatching fights. Here I managed to ignore the commentators and see what was really going on. But I, like many others, was fooled by Lampley's cheer-leading in Cotto-Margo. Many posters had Cotto comfortably ahead and said it looked like a mismatch. When rewatching it, you could see that Cotto was taking hard punishment from round 2 and on even though he was winning.

Round 4 of this fight is the same to me. While some people describing this a very close round, after rewatching it I feel Pirog was landing the much more effective blows. Problem is, the home-town crowd was giving much more "oohs" and "aahs" whenever Jacobs landed flashy jabs. Make no mistake, Jacobs jab is very good when properly executed but there's no way the jab was as effective as Pirog's right in that wound which went without as much as reaction by the crowd AND the commentators. In a way, also like Margo-Cotto where Lamplay only called Cotto's blows. I know, this is not halfway as bad but still...

We shouldn't be too hard on Jacobs. Backing up against the ropes is very correctable - stop pawing woth the jab too. He showed good ability in the third and that right hand he landed on Pirog would have hurt several other fighers. He has very good speed and good power. His guard showed lapses in this fight as well as the Ishe Smith one. His chin is not that bad because that right hand would have decked almost everybody. But all this comes down to mental focus and I'm actually not sure if Jacobs has it. He looked too cocky during the ring walk and I didn't like the way he was quickly folding. But he's young and this was a real step-up, so I will give him the benefit of he doubt and wish him the best!

I feel Maravilla would school Pirog right now BUT be tested by his pressure in the end. The only question is Martinez' stamina and chin. Pirog's slow of foot and doesn't have the jab to work his way in. And for all his "great" defense there are lapses and spaces and Maravilla would find them. The counter-puncher would get countered. Keep away for another year or so!

 

Dwyer obviously thought the occasion and pick merited a trip to the sofa

I usually check his videos every few weeks and it's only recently I've forgotten about him. Typical that I missed this :-(