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Hometown favourite Daniel ‘Miracle Man’ Jacobs completed an inspiring comeback from cancer patient to world champion boxer as he stopped Aussie Jarrod Fletcher in the fifth round on Saturday.
Knockout artist Jacobs proved too strong for Fletcher. From the first bell, Fletcher was put on the back foot, knocked down in the first round by a hard left hook.
Fletcher survived an onslaught of punches from Jacobs just to make it to the end of the round.
That set the tone for much of the fight. Jacobs out-landed Fletcher in power punches 92 to 24, an insurmountable difference given the respective power of the two fighters.
Unable to match Jacobs for outright power, Fletcher needed to out-jab Jacobs and frustrate him. However he wasn’t able to do this with any great success until the fifth round. Unfortunately for Fletcher, it was this round in which the defeat came.
Fletcher had been in with a chance of taking the round before Jacobs caught him with a right hand which wobbled him. With just a few seconds remaining, Jacobs then forced Fletcher back on to the ropes. Fletcher covered up, evading several punches, before a hard right hand to the body created the opening for another powerful right to the jaw, sending Fletcher to the canvas.
Fletcher tried to get up, but was in no position to continue and the referee stopped the fight after 2 minutes and 58 seconds of the fifth round.
Fletcher continued the recent trend of Australian boxers falling short at the highest level, after Daniel Geale and Blake Caparello both lost their world title fights.
It is no disgrace to lose to fighters of the quality of Golovkin, Kovalev and Jacobs though, and Fletcher had done well to engineer an opportunity at what was the biggest fight of his career.
His previous loss to British fighter Billy Joe Saunders in 2012 was a real setback, but he regrouped with five fights in Australia before beating Max Bursak in Monaco for the WBA international title, which earned him the fight with Jacobs.
Fletcher came back from that defeat to Saunders and vowed Saturday night to do the same again.
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