He hasn’t had a Vegas fight since 2010. He returns Saturday to face boxing’s biggest draw

The images from Daniel Jacobs’ last fight in Las Vegas became so unpleasant that he fought elsewhere in his next 17 bouts.

Jacobs had won his first 20 professional matches, earning him a vacant title fight against Dmitry Pirog July 2010 in Las Vegas. A fifth-round technical knockout loss to Pirog shattered Jacobs’ championship aspirations and began his exodus from a city considered the hub of marquee boxing events.

On Saturday night, Jacobs will finally end his lengthy Las Vegas absence. Jacobs will face middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a title unification bout at the T-Mobile Arena.

Jacobs, 32, is not haunted by his previous Las Vegas experience. Not only has the New York City native overcome the loss to Pirog by eventually winning a middleweight belt but also underwent successful treatment for bone cancer.

“There’s definitely no concern because if you know anything about the last time I fought in Vegas and how old I was, and the things that I was going through at that time, I’m a completely different fighter,” Jacobs said. “And I’m also a completely different person, with a mature mind, with a lot more skills, with a lot more mental strength. So, there’s not fear; there’s not a worry whatsoever when it comes to that.”

Although Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) holds a sanctioning body title, his profile will substantially enhance with a victory over Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs). The native of Mexico is boxing’s top attraction and his Las Vegas appearances on the first weekend in May have become fixtures on the fight calendar.

“It’s the biggest platform that you can be in in boxing,” Jacobs said. “It can be really, really nerve-wrecking for the faint of heart. But for someone who has the experience in the past, maybe not of this magnitude because the main goal, but very similar, were the past couple fights that I’ve had that have been huge fights and fights where, I was predicted to lose or that it couldn’t go my way and I prevailed.”

After the loss to Pirog, Jacobs won 12 consecutive fights. The streak earned Jacobs a second title fight against then middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in March 2017. Golovkin knocked Jacobs down in the fourth round and seemed headed to his 24th straight knockout victory before Jacobs recovered, fought back and lost a tight unanimous decision.

“I just knew this opportunity would present itself because I gave my very best that night, and I just knew that it wasn’t the end of me,” Jacobs said. “Most times, guys, they reach that level, they lose and sometimes it may take a couple years for to you see them guys reach that level again.”

In fact, Jacobs used the defeat against Golovkin as a springboard to three successive victories, including a split decision win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko for the vacant International Boxing Federation title last October.

Jacobs’ fight docket since his previous Las Vegas experience has featured dominant victories but also close distance-lasting performances. And fighting Alvarez in Las Vegas also comes with the growing skepticism that an opponent needs to win by knockout and prevent the judges from determining the result.

Golovkin learned it the hard way in his two Las Vegas bouts with Alvarez. The native of Kazakhstan retained his title with a disputed draw in the first fight and was on the short end of a majority decision in the rematch, ending Golovkin’s 20-fight championship run.

“I don’t really want to touch on it too much, but at the same time we know that the past has spoken for itself,” Jacobs said. “But for me, I have to block those things out and remain head strong to where I go in there and do my job and get the victory because if I go in there and get a knockout then all of that is out the window anyway.”

Late Saturday, Rances Barthelemy and Robert Easter fought to a draw in their vacant lightweight title fight in Las Vegas. Barthelemy and Easter split a 115-113 verdict on two judges’ scorecards while the third scored the bout 114-114.

Coming up

Saturday (9 p.m., DAZN): Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs, 12, for the unified WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight titles.

Saturday (10 p.m., ESPN): Artur Beterbiev vs. Radivoje Kaljdzic, 12, for Beterbiev’s IBF light-heavyweight title; Jerwin Ancajas vs. Ryuichi Funai, 12, for Ancajas’ IBF junior-bantamweight title.

This story was originally published April 28, 2019 at 3:49 PM.