On October 20,
2012, having fully recovered from cancer, Daniel Jacobs made a successful
return to professional boxing with a first-round knockout victory
over Josh Luteran.
ESPN.com reported that the scheduled February 9,
2013 bout between Danny Garcia and Zab Judah at the Barclays Center
in Brooklyn, New York was moved to April 27, 2013 because of a rib
injury sustained by Garcia. With Jacobs penciled in on the undercard
fight for this event, his fight moved to April 27th as well. Jacobs
defeated Keenan Collins with a round 4 knockout on that date.
On August 19, 2013, Jacobs captured the WBC Continental Americas middleweight title via third-round knockout of Giovanni Lorenzo during the premiere of Golden Boy Live! on Fox Sports 1.
WBA (Regular) middleweight
champion
On August 9, 2014, Jacobs won the vacant WBA (Regular) middleweight
title with a 5th-round TKO over Jarrod Fletcher at the Barclays Center
in Brooklyn, New York. Jacobs dropped Fletcher in round 1 with a left
hook and in round 5 with a right cross. With the win, Jacobs became
a world champion. "It feels so great to win this belt," Jacobs said.
"It's the greatest moment in my life." Jacobs stated that he wanted
to fight Peter Quillin next.
Jacobs' first defense came against Caleb
Truax, whom he comfortably outboxed for eleven rounds, until he scored
a knockdown and got a stoppage on round 12.
Jacobs' then fought former light middleweight titlist Sergio Mora. Jacobs started the fight tentatively, but was able to time and counter Mora with a right hook that put the latter on the canvas. Mora was able to return the favor when Jacobs tried to apply pressure to get a quick stoppage. The fight would then be stopped when Mora retired after injuring his right foot in round 2. After the fight, Jacobs once again said he was looking to fight Quillin.
Jacobs vs. Quillin, Mora II
On December 5, 2015 Jacobs
beat Peter Quillin by TKO in the first round. Jacobs landed a lead
right hand that caught Quillin flush on the template and heavily rocked
him. Jacobs then attempted to finish the fight landing nonstop hard
combinations the whole round. He landed another big punch that saw
Quillin staggering over to the ropes, at which point the referee saw
that Quillin was highly disorientated and waved the fight off with
no complaint from Quillin. Many, including Floyd Mayweather, felt
that the fight was halted too early.
In September 2016, Jacobs rematched
Sergio Mora. He complained that the fight was a step back for him,
as he thought he'd beaten Mora convincingly the first time. On fight
night, Jacobs scored two flash knockdowns in rounds 4 and 5 befre
getting a dominant TKO win. Mora went down three times in round 7
before the referee halted the contest.
Jacobs vs Golovkin
Jacobs
was engaged in negotiations with WBC, IBF, IBO and WBA (Super) middleweight
champion Gennady Golovkin through 2016. Jacobs was Golovkin's mandatory
as both fighters held WBA belts, as part of the WBA's stated plan
to unify their belts. WBA president Gilberto Mendoza confirmed in
an email to RingTV that a deal had to be made by 5pm on December 7th
or a purse bid would be held on December 19th in Panama. Later that
day, the WBA announced a purse bid would be scheduled with a minimum
bid of $400,000, with Golovkin receiving 75% and Jacobs 25%. Although
purse bids were announced, Loeffler stated he would carry on negotiations,
hopeful that a deal would be reached before the purse bid. On December
17th, terms were finally agreed and it was officially announced that
the fight would take place at Madison Square Gardn in New York City
on March 18th, 2017. The fight would be shown on HBO PPV.