Jacobs: Sulecki is Game; Let's See if He Can Take the Punches

Via Boxing Scene - By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Daniel Jacobs laughed out loud when informed Maciej Sulecki called Luis Arias a clown.

Jacobs respects Sulecki and expects the Polish contender to give an honest effort when they fight April 28 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Neither Jacobs nor Sulecki could say the same for Arias.

Milwaukee’s Arias (18-1, 9 KOs) trashed Jacobs throughout the promotion of their November 11 bout at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. When they squared off, however, Arias refrained from exchanging and lost a one-sided, 12-round unanimous decision in Uniondale, New York.

“Arias definitely didn’t give the fans a good show and he didn’t give the fans his best effort,” Jacobs told BoxingScene.com before a press conference Tuesday. “So in that regard, yeah, he was a clown. This guy [Sulecki], he will be game. Whether or not he can take the punches and what he’ll do after that will tell the tale.

“Because you can think you can go in there until you get hit, and then you become a clown. So you can’t really call somebody else a clown until you actually go in there and experience it, and try to figure out the puzzle yourself.”

Regardless, Brooklyn’s Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) anticipates more competition from Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs) in a 12-rounder HBO will broadcast.

Arias was unbeaten but mostly untested. Sulecki stopped Hugo Centeno Jr. (26-1, 14 KOs, 1 NC) in the 10th round of their June 2016 bout.

Centeno, of Oxnard, California, is scheduled to encounter Houston’s Jermall Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs) for the WBC interim middleweight title March 3 at Barclays Center (Showtime).

“I’m excited about this opponent,” Jacobs said during the press conference. “This gentleman [Sulecki], unlike this other guy we had [Arias], he’s gonna come and he’s gonna put his best foot forward. So don’t sleep on this guy. You’ve never heard of him, but he’s tall, he’s rangy, he’s a middleweight and he’s not gonna back down. So I know, for sure, it’s gonna be an action-packed fight.”

Jacobs-Sulecki will air after HBO’s opener April 28, a heavyweight bout between Brooklyn’s Jarrell Miller (20-0-1, 18 KOs) and France’s Johann Duhaupas (37-4, 24 KOs).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.