TOGETHER AGAIN
Brownsville’s Jacobs reunites with trainer Rozier after 15 months off
When we last saw former two-time middleweight champion Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs of Brownsville in the ring, something was missing.
A couple of drab 2020 wins over Julio Chavez, Jr. (TKO 5) and Gabriel Rosado (Split Decision 12) notwithstanding, he didn’t look like the Danny of old.
At 35, an old Danny, maybe.
What was missing for those two bouts was his trainer.
“I didn’t watch the fights, but the word was coming back to me a mile a minute,” recalls Andre Rozier, Jacobs’ trainer since he was 14. The two had a split for two fights. “The annals of writing was all over the walls. ‘He made a major mistake’ and ‘You guys needs to start working together because he’s going downhill.’”
“I got them back together,” said Keith Connolly, Jacobs’ manager. “They met at my house which is a kind of neutral territory. It was a little uneven for them, but my house was a safe haven for them.”
They’re back together and it seems so right. “This is Danny’s best camp since Triple G,” says Connolly, the former Manager of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Jacobs lost a 12-round decision in a spirited battle in 2017 versus Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Of the seventeen members of the press polled after the fight, nine had Golovkin winning, six had Jacobs, and two had it a draw.
If the reunification of Jacobs and Rozier is to be successful again, then time is of the essence.
Jacobs (37-3; 30 KOs) returns to the ring after a 15-month layoff facing southpaw John Ryder (30-5; 17 KOs) on February 12 at the Alexandra Palace in London, Ryder’s hometown. The 12-round bout on DAZN, has no titles at stake, but Jacobs can’t afford a loss this late in his career.
“My fans would say this is not a major fight,” acknowledges the New York Daily News fourtime Golden Gloves champ, but this is, “absolutely the last fight before a title fight.”
Is the title fight for the middleweight or the super middleweight title?
“I just have goals, not one specific goal,” he says in a calm voice.
Getting back with Rozier has returned Jacobs to his comfort zone.
“It feels great. We had some disagreements,” he says, “but I learned that family and associations really care.
“My grandmother said, ‘If it is for you, it will come for you.’”
“We had a lot of miscommunications and misinformation like any other relationship on this planet,” states Rozier. “Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days. If you don’t talk about the bad days, it just becomes worse days.”
After a career of twenty-one years together spanning over 140 amateur fights and 39 as a pro, breaking up can be easier than staying together.
“We both admitted it was necessary to change attitudes and consideration and be more mindful of everything and each other,” points out Rozier, one of the best trainers in the business. “If anything does come up, talk about it, don’t suppress it, or hold it inside.
“Communication is everything. [Talking] is the simplest thing to do, but it’s the hardest thing to do at times.”
The fight against the 33-year-old Ryder is the steppingstone back to the big time for Jacobs, but Rozier is looking for more than just a normal, textbook win.
“This John Ryder fight actually is the one to get us back on track,” reveals Rozier. “I like knockouts and you don’t leave it to the judges. I’m looking for Danny to get John Ryder out of there.
“I want to see some creativity, zest, and excitement. Let the people be excited about you and say I’m glad he’s back.”
It’s been a long road back for Jacobs. There have been bumps in in the road like when he lost his first title challenge to Dmitry Pirog with a fifth-round kayo in 2010. Then there was the crater-size roadblock in the rare form of cancer called osteosarcoma which wrapped itself around his spine in 2011. The cancer could have killed Jacobs, but he fought it off while learning how to walk and fight again.
The cancer kept him out of the ring for 19 months.
The current 15-month layoff, the second longest in his career, was strictly boxing related.
“It’s just designed that way,” says Jacobs. “Fights were falling out or fell through.”
If Rozier is looking for the knockout, Jacobs isn’t tipping his hand.
“I know enough,” he says, adding about his opponent, “but not too keen on him.”
Ryder is used to big fights and the hype. He lost on points to WBA super middleweight champ Callum Smith in 2019 and Billy Joe Saunders, the former WBO middleweight and super middleweight champ, back in 2013 for the British and Commonwealth titles. Ryder has been stopped only once in 2015.
Jacobs was an extremely talented amateur posting a 137-7 mark. Besides winning the New York Daily News Golden Gloves tournament four times, he was a two-time PAL National Champion and a National Golden Gloves champion.
As a pro, Jacobs gave spirted efforts in losing his titles via decision to Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez (2019).
The Ryder fight is the last of the “small fights” for Team Jacobs and Rozier.
While working out at in Brooklyn and Westbury, Long Island, Rozier still teaches his old dog new tricks like being able to fight as a southpaw which Jacobs does from time to time.
“I like most fighters to explore different avenues of creativity in the ring,” notes Rozier with his out-of-the-box training/thinking. “You may hurt your hand and have to [switch]. It’s a good drill to pick up and a good stance to know how to box out of. It’s something that adds to the repertoire and your fight resume.”
A role model to his 13-year-old son Nate, Jacobs has little time for setbacks.
Prior to his unification fight with Canelo Alvarez, Jacobs stated he couldn’t wait to bring the belts back to Brooklyn.
Now, Jacobs prepares to do so once again. “We’ve been grinding since the last week in December,” says Rozier with a chuckle.