Danny Jacobs A Winner Just By Returning to the Ring

Danny Jacobs was nicknamed “The Golden Child,” and with skills, and a pleasant personality, it was thought that his path to stardom was pretty much assured. The Brownsville, Brooklyn native turned pro in 2007 after cleaning up as an an amateur, and Golden Boy had him on a title path. He hit a speedbump in Dmitriy Pirog, but while that wasn't dismissed out of hand, an explanation that his beloved grandma died a week before the fight did go a ways in explaining his lack of focus on fight night, enroute to getting kayoed. The road got bumpier when Jacobs last April began experiencing difficulty walking. He dismissed symptoms, to the point that he needed to walk with a cane. And he didn't have health insurance–by the way, that is a totally common and completely unacceptable situation in the sport, and hell, in this richest nation in the world–so he put off going to see a doctor. Unable to walk, his aunt finally dragged him to a hospital. They checked him out, and the news was grim. A tumor had wrapped itself around his spine and was squeezing the life out of him. He had surgeries and radiation treatments, and the tumor was excised. Docs said he shouldn't return to his love, boxing, but he firmly disagreed. By December, he was sparring. And on Saturday night, the 22-1 middleweight will return to the ring, at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn. Who he is fighting is basically immaterial; that he is fighting is a near miracle. Check this moving video produced by Showtime spotlighting the 25-year-old Jacobs, who now goes by the nickname “The Miracle Man.”

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Also, here is a video chat I did with Jacobs last week, after a workout at Gleason's.