Boxing | Jacobs beats Sulecki, eyes another middleweight title shot

Daniel Jacobs (left) punches Poland’s Maciej Sulecki during the 10th round of a middleweight boxing match

Daniel Jacobs smiled in his corner after an action-packed third round, looking pleased to be in a tough fight.

It wasn’t clear he would win it until he knocked Maciej Sulecki down with the kind of punch he wants to throw at the middleweight division’s biggest names.

The 12th-round knockdown helped Jacobs win a unanimous decision yesterday [Macau time], strengthening his hopes of getting another title shot.

Jacobs pulled out a competitive fight, winning by scores of 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112 and handing the Polish fighter his first loss.

“Going into the late rounds, the championship rounds, I mean ultimately what I was thinking was just to give these fans a great show,” Jacobs said.

The Associated Press scored it 116-111 for Jacobs.

Jacobs (34-2-0) became the mandatory challenger for the WBA 160-pound title, giving the popular Brooklyn fighter and cancer survivor hopes of a chance to avenge his unanimous decision loss to Gennady Golovkin from last year. Golovkin is fighting next week and afterward may want to turn his attention back to Canelo Alvarez after their planned May 5 rematch was scrapped when Alvarez was suspended for six months by the Nevada Athletic Commission for failing two drug tests.

So Jacobs also mentioned a fight with Jermall Charlo, who became the WBC’s interim middleweight champ with a second- round knockout of Hugo Centeno Jr. in this same ring last week.

“My plan is to fight any of the champions with the belts, any of the top guys at middleweight,” Jacobs said. “If Brooklyn wants Charlo, then Charlo it will be.”

Jacobs had a much tougher time with Sulecki (26-1), who seemed to gain confidence as the fight went on and was getting the better of some of the action in the late rounds until Jacobs caught him with a quick right to the head early in the 12th, sending Sulecki to the canvas as Brooklyn fans roared for the hometown fighter.

There had been chants of “Brook-lyn, Brook-lyn” earlier in the bout from the local fans that made up the announced crowd of 7,892 at Barclays Center. But the vocal section of Polish fans grew louder in the later rounds as their fighter rallied.

They had traded hard shots across the final seconds of the third, Jacobs smiling in his corner afterward as if pleased the action was picking up. Disappointed that Luis Arias went defensive and he had to settle for a decision in his last bout, Jacobs seemed to enjoy being in a real fight this weekend.

He won it by finding a way to be just a bit quicker than Sulecki in their exchanges. But promoter Eddie Hearn has been calling Jacobs the best middleweight in the world, and at times Saturday he was barely the best middleweight in the ring. Brian Mahoney, New York, AP