Daniel Jacobs vs. Caleb Truax

This has been added to April's Premier Boxing Champions on NBC card, making it a triple-header along with Lee vs. Quillin & Garcia vs. Peterson, which is the main event (and scheduled for 12 rounds) despite being the only non-title bout.

On the line will be the "regular" WBA middleweight title, 1st defense of Jacobs. The version on the line this week between Dmitry Chudinov and Chris Eubank Jr. is the interim title.

For the challenger this marks a return to MW for the first time since knocking out Ceresso Fort in 2013, and only the 2nd time since his sole career defeat to Jermain Taylor in 2012. It technically will only be his third middleweight contest ever, as both Truax and Taylor missed weight by a few ounces making that super middleweight, as most of Truax's career has been spent.


Both are riding eight-bout unbeaten streaks dating back to losses to Dmitry Pirog and Jermain Taylor respectively. Jacobs is a perfect 8 for 8 in knockouts, most notably over former perennial contender Giovanni Lorenzo and Jarrod Fletcher to pick up the vacant belt. Truax is 7-0-1 (5) on his own run, beating up a who's-who of American journeymen in his weight range and drawing with legendarily tough Ghanaian tester Ossie Duran.

 

Twofold question about the winner :

1. Are they, as ' regular ' champ, actually superior h2h to Chudinov or Eubank, whomever is the winner of Saturday's interim championship? Would you favor either Jacobs or Truax over either Chudinov or Eubank in a unification (pipe dream; the WBA loves having its belts splintered into as many little moneymaking units as possible)

2. Are they effectively #2 US MW after Quillin? For all intents and purposes we can exclude Jermain Taylor from the active rankings. The only real arguments, therefore, come from unbeaten yet so far not all that accomplished prospects in Willie Monroe Jr., Dominic Wade, Tony Harrison, Hugo Centeno Jr. and Jermall Charlo (Ievghen Khytrov is listed as now "American" but he literally represented Ukraine in the Olympics under 3 years ago...if he counted he would be up there) and veterans lacking in certain essential qualities like Mora and Stevens.

 

Even though nobody has ever stopped him? Truax has fought some guys with dig (even if they were over the hill or never-was-es), most notably Donovan George, and to my knowledge nobody has even dropped him.

I also consider him legit already. His résumé has names like George, Boxcino participant Ceresso Fort, Pooh Ennis (wins over Gabe Rosado & Eromosele Albert before he was shot), Proksa conqueror Kerry Hope, former Pavlik victim Scott "Cujo" Sigmon (coming off a knockout of Jessie "Beast" Nicklow, who subsequently went the distance with Ryoto Murata), high-profile Midwestern journeymen Andy Kolle & Matt Vanda, shot Antwun Echols, and Phil "The Drill Williams" (kind of like the light heavy/cruiser version of Travis Walker)

Legit - but definitely not elite. That doesn't mean he can't pick up a belt in the right stylistic match-up...which I don't think Jacobs is for him, but probably at least half of the middleweight top 15 would find Truax a headache on the night.