Earlier this week in Manhattan, Matchroom Boxing officially announced their U.S. debut with Daniel Jacobs facing off against Luis Arias in a 12-round middleweight bout and Jarrell Miller taking on Mariusz Wach in a 12-round heavyweight tilt. The event will take place Saturday, November 11 at NYCB LIVE, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT in the US and on Sky Sports in the UK.
(Photo credit: Matchroom Boxing/Ed Mulholland)
Below are highlights from the press conference:
EDDIE HEARN:
“Look at this guy (turning to Luis Arias), if you can dress like that, you can fight – there is no doubt whatsoever. This is a young lion. This is a guy that is 19-0. We saw him on the Ward-Kovalev card it was a destruction of Magomedov and he’s coming here he is confident and this is the opportunity he has been waiting for, for a long, long time. We have plans for Daniel to go to the top – Canelo, Golovkin – but right now he is the only thing that should be in Danny Jacobs’ mind is this young man. The co-main event – what a fight in what a division – the heavyweight division – so many great young fighters and of course our charge who I believe is the biggest star in world boxing – Anthony Joshua, looking for opponents, looking for people to fight. And on the card here on November 11 you have a heavyweight match-up that I think is a mouth-watering opportunity. Top 10 heavyweights – Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, the star out of Brooklyn who always has plenty to say and who is already making waves in the heavyweight division and his opponent is Mariusz, the giant here over to my left. He is sensational and we had him in for sparring with Anthony Joshua for the Klitschko fight. Wach is No. 7 with the WBC and Top 10 with the IBF. This is a Top 10 heavyweight match-up that is very important and instrumental to the division moving forward.. We wouldn’t be here without our partners and it is wonderful to be teaming up with HBO and Peter Nelson – he is a guy that lives and breathes the sport of boxing. He can phone me up and 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning it doesn’t matter I will pick up the call. We look forward to working together. Of course Brooklyn Boxing, who has been working closely with Danny Jacobs as well, and their new home the Coliseum and coming back to Brooklyn in March or April. It is an absolute honor to be promoting live boxing in America and you can really enjoy what we are going to bring. It is going to be fresh, exciting, tickets go on sale Thursday priced from $30 up to $350 for our VIP package. Trust me, in about 6 months time every promoter in the business over here will be trying to copy our VIP package – you are going to enjoy it a lot.”
DANIEL “MIRACLE MAN” JACOBS – (32-2, 29 KOs):
“I have much respect for Luis and his team for taking this fight I want to thank HBO and my promoter Eddie Hearn thank you for believing in me and thanks for giving me this platform to me so I can showcase my skills. I always wanted to make sure that I prove to the fans that I step inside the ring with the best and even though a lot of people don’t know who Luis Arias is, a lot of people on the inside of the boxing world know who this guy is. He is an undefeated champion and he is looking to ruin all of the things that I have and that HBO and my promoter have for me, so I have to take this guy serious – I didn’t take serious what he said now but I have to take this guy serious because this is an opportunity of a lifetime. I have to continue to do what I do and win so I can have my opportunities in the near future. I am taking this fight very serious. It’s in my hometown. Its added pressure. Main event. It is my first appearance on HBO, officially as a signed fighter with my new promoter. This is nerve wracking. This is supposed to be my showcase. Now this man is going to try and ruin it all. I am going to do my best. I am going to give a great show. Whether or not he can last, whether or not the chin…I think I’ve proven those things. Yea, I went down in amateurs against Sean Porter. I went down in the pros against Dmitri Pirog (words from Arias) OK, Sergio Mora I went down. But guess what? (Looking at Arias) None of that matters. None of that stuff matters. You cannot base all of those things on how you are going to perform. You are none of those guys and I am no one you have ever fought before. We can stand here and compare amateur records. We can talk about your two national, one national championship versus my trips out of the country, international duels – we can go on and on and on about that but none of that matters. What matter is that we prepare ourselves well, we step in and we give the best foot forward. But I’m honestly, I’m really not (looking at heckler in crowd) Sergio Mora was the only guy I said I was going to knock out and I knocked out. I don’t really like knocking out guys but I thought this was going to be a cool press conference and we were going to come up here and take pictures but this guy is taking it to another level. This guy is really taking it to another level. He’s got the jewels on, he’s got the Fruity Pebbles suit on. I’m mean New York is, you are in for a treat guys. Bit shout out to my team – Andre Rozier, my trainer Victor Roundtree up in heaven and my family, my ”Get In The Ring’ Foundation and everyone who has supported me in my career. I cannot begin to tell you how much this opportunity means to me. I will show you November 11 and that’s going to be one of my best outings because this guy – he needs to get his mouth shut, so tune in if you can’t be there it’s going to be a good fight.”
LUIS “Cuba” ARIAS – (18-0, 9 KOs):
“Yea ( in a loud voice) down goes Jacobs, down goes Jacobs. He’s not getting up Jim, he’s not getting up. Let’s not act like it’s not happened before now. That chin has been checked and he has hit that deck so it’s not far fetched. Yea you are a good fighter. You did your thing. You put up a valiant effort versus Triple G. Eddie Hearn and HBO is giving you way too much credit for just making it to the 12th round. I’ve been fighting my whole life, since I’ve been 8-years old. I know the difference between boxing and running, and there were a lot of points in that fight where I didn’t know if you were boxing or running. So like I said I am ready for this opportunity and like he said it didn’t take any time to get this fight done. They offered me the fight Friday morning and at 12:30 I said give me the Jacobs fight and now we are here. I’d like to thank HBO – Peter, you did say you were going to bring me back on HBO. When we spoke before the Magomedov fight I told you who I wanted and you delivered. I took the fight and I’m ready. I’m undefeated and I’m hungry. I never hit the deck, never been hurt. I’m moving. If I fought the guys he fought I’d be 30-0 too. He’s had a great team, he’s been taken care of but at the end of the day that chin is suspect. I’m training for a fight I don’t plan on training for a marathon. Please, when I hit you, just don’t run. I am going to be in the middle of the ring. You’re not going to have to find me. I am going to be right there ready to fight. So like I said on November 11 I am shocking the world and everyone is going to see who Luis Arias is. (To heckler) Who’s hitting that deck?” How many times as your man his that deck? (To more hecklers) I hit the deck? How many time as he hit the deck? Sergio Mora had eight knockouts. – he put him down. Did you see Sergio Mora? What happened to Pirog? Do you remember Pirog? HBO set it up for him to be a star. (Yelling from crowd) November 11 we are going to find out. I’ll be ready, like I said. I am going to be read – 100% ready. I’ve been watching Daniel Jacobs since I was 15, 16-years old and even back then he was getting dropped. I stand a very good chance to win this fight. I suggest you guys go and do your homework. Ike I said, like I told Peter, everything Danny did, I did it. Danny couldn’t even get out of the US in the amateurs. They never took Danny out of the US to fight the world champions. Why? Because he would lose. It’s the truth. I was there – I was the national champ. When did you win, in 2006? I won in 2008 and 2010, so I am right there. I belong in this fight and I am going to be ready. Like I said, I am training for the hardest fight of my life, I will be in tip-top shape and I’ll be ready. I just want to take the time right now and let everyone know, everyone in Las Vegas my prayers are with you guys and I suggest everyone that can donate some blood go donate some blood. Puerto Rico and Mexico still need our help and keep donating. Roc Nation and Title – we have a big plan that we are getting ready to send over to Puerto Rico. I highly suggest you go to tidal.com/puertorico and in Brooklyn her Club Lust is open for donations every day. Just keep pushing. We are in good positions in our lives but there are people out there in the world that need us. See you in November.”
JARRELL “Big Baby” MILLER – (19-0, 17 KOs):
“This is a long time coming to get to this point. If you know anything about the streets or anything about fighters, it’s been a long time to get to where I am at and no easy routs taken – 15 years and we are finally somewhere. I want to thank Eddie Hearn from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity in a country where I am not from for him to see the talent in me and people that are from the country that I am from kind of overlook me. HBO stepped up – Salita, he’s a pain in my butt, but I’ve known him since I was 16-years old and he’s a pretty good guy when he wants to be and he’s still my boy – Shalom. It took my team to get me here. If I said I did it all by myself I would be lying to you – there were some days where I didn’t have a place to sleep. There were days I had no money and Harry gave me a couple bucks. It took a lot for me to get to where I am today. I am super motivated. I am relaxed right now. I am super motivated. I fought at 296 my last fight and I am at 296 right now so imagine 5 weeks from now where I am going to be. I am so angry on the inside from what happened a couple weeks ago because they wanted me to fight my best friend, but I sacrificed so much to get here, I would quit and die before I would give in the need to somebody else – that’s not the way how this works. November 11 is going to be war. I’m an actually black/polish if you didn’t know that. I am going to give you a history lesson. A lot of people don’t know that the Polish helped the Haitians against the French to overthrow the French and to give Haitian people their independence. Since then, Poland is recognized as the only European country as being black. So he’s (pointing at Wach) actually black – he might not know that, so that means he can fight his ass off twice as much. It took teamwork to get to where I am at I could not get here by myself but in that ring I am by myself and come November 11 I am going to kick your behind. He’s got no idea. If I am throwing 70 punches at 296 on five weeks notice imagine what I’m going to bring to the ring on November 11 – it’s going to be fireworks. I thank everyone for giving me the opportunity t let me show my skills on TV. If you track me from amateurs, from kick-boxing till now I’ve been kicking but for a long time and that’s what’s going to happen on November 11 – I am going to kick butt again. I’m not Adam or whoever you have sparred with. I’m not Klitschko – I am something different. I’m mean. I’m a killer. I’m going to knock your head off. I thank you for signing the contract because it was hard to find another dummy to step in and I appreciate it. Thanks again – support your local fighters, support Brooklyn and of course look out for one another no matter if you are white. Muslim, Jew, Irish, Puerto Rican, no matter, we only have each other at the end of the day.”
DARIUSZ WACH – (33-2, 17 KOs):
“I would like to thank everybody that is out here especially HBO for giving me this chance in this big fight coming up with Joel Miller on November 11. We do know that Jarrell Miller is a strong fighter and a big heavyweight but he hasn’t met a warrior like me, he hasn’t met a heavyweight like me and on November 11 it is going to be war. I can’t wait to see everyone inside the Coliseum on November 11. Thank you.”
PETER NELSON, HBO SPORTS:
“I would like to thank Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing. After the signing a lot of people said ‘Wow, HBO is making some great moves here,’ and made us look terrific. I’ll tell you exactly how complicated this was – Keith Connolly and Eddie Hearn came to us and said “Do you want to sign Daniel Jacobs?’ I said yes and that was about as complicated a discussion as it needed to be. He is a star on his way to superstardom and one of the greatest stories in the sport but that is not why we are here. We are here because this is a great fight. I asked Luis Arias ‘How old are you?’ and he said ‘Let me tell you something – everything that Daniel Jacobs did as an amateur I did twice.’ I didn’t ask how good you are I asked how old you are. This is going to be a great fight. Luis Arias is undefeated. Daniel Jacobs is on the rise. Daniel has all of the experience. This one is a little younger. We are also going to have a tremendous co-feature with the HBO debut of “Big Baby” Miller along with Wach and as Eddie said the heavyweight division right now is very exciting.”
Tickets for the live event are on sale on Thursday, October 5 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com, NYCBLIVE.com or by calling 800-745-3000. Tickets can also be purchased at the Ticketmaster Box Office at the Coliseum, starting Friday, October 6 at noon.
