It’s never bad for business when, just hours before the first bell rings to start a big fight, the two protagonists get into a scuffle, a shoving match – an apparent bad tempered show of strength. And yesterday, at the official weigh-in for their potential Fight of The Year, it was the turn of Canelo Alvarez and Danny Jacobs to do the snarling, ‘I will punish you!’ bit.
Fans seem to be split as to whether or not the brief spat that took place during the obligatory face-off was on the level, or merely an act to further boost DAZN sales for tonight’s fight. Either way, the head-to-head, hands on display has got people talking. Eddie Hearn, though smiling throughout the “incident,” later put his promotional hat on in grand style as he told U.K’s Sky Sports (who will be televising the fight over here, in the wee hours of Sunday morning) how he has “never seen Canelo react like that before.” “It was surprising,” Hearn, who co-promotes Jacobs, said.
Was it really? It all adds “a nice edge” to the fight, as Eddie also said. In any case, Hearn said that Canelo being fired up and “rattled” could be good news or it could be bad news for Jacobs. Let’s hope the two fighters show as much passion and intensity as they really can when the bell rings. Oscar De La Hoya said he felt Jacobs looked “very nervous,” and that it is “1-0” to his man Canelo.
We’ll soon see. But here’s a prediction: whoever wins, these two will embrace after the fight. They always do. Yet we fans always seem to be suckers for the pushing and the shoving that almost always goes down before any big fight these days. Will we never learn?
In any case, the hype before a fight is pretty much meaningless and soon forgotten; other than how we always hope the fight lives up to the hype. This match-up is a solid one, a truly meaningful one, and both guys deserve credit for taking it.
Fight Prediction: Canelo by close, somewhat controversial decision.
