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Cancer survivor Daniel Jacobs a different man, different champion

The quickest way for a young boxer to garner attention and make a name for himself is to score a string of quick, devastating knockouts.

By the summer of 2010, middleweight Daniel Jacobs had become arguably one of the sport’s hottest prospects, with a string of knockout victims in his wake.

Jacobs scored knockouts in his first nine professional bouts and in 17 of his first 20, earning him a July 31, 2010, middleweight championship match against unbeaten Dmitry Pirog in Las Vegas.

Daniel Jacobs (right) lands a left jab on Jarrod Fletcher during his WBA middleweight title defense in August 2014. (Getty)
Daniel Jacobs (right) lands a left jab on Jarrod Fletcher during his WBA middleweight title defense in August 2014. (Getty)

It wasn’t Jacobs’ power, though, that grabbed people’s attention.

Instead, it’s something deep inside of him that has made him special.

Jacobs is one of the few athletes in the sport’s history to win a world championship after having cancer.

This, though, was no ordinary cancer. As Jacobs himself told Yahoo Sports in 2012, he was only days away from death less than a year after he’d fought Pirog unsuccessfully for the world title.

He returned to the ring on Oct. 20, 2012, a vastly different man. Miraculously, perhaps, he’d survived after his initial diagnosis in May 2011.

No longer was he known for his range and the stinging power of his punches. He was now the fighter everyone could root for.

His return was slow, but just the fact that he’d made that walk down the aisle at the Barclays Center in  Brooklyn, hopped up the steps and slipped beneath the ropes to face another man made him a hero to many.

And it changed him in ways both obvious and subtle. Jacobs, now 28, holds the WBA middleweight belt, which he’ll defend on Dec. 5 at Barclays on Showtime against Peter Quillin.

“I got a second chance, and a lot of people don’t get that,” he said. “I’ve decided that I want to take advantage of that. I want to inspire people, and be the guy people point to when they’re down and struggling. ‘Hey, if that guy can do it and come back to be a world champion, I can, too.’ Having had [cancer] and overcoming it is a part of who I am, and I want to use that to spread the message that there’s no reason to give up.”

Even without having to endure the arduous journey that a cancer patient must, Jacobs faced much adversity.

Only days before what should have been the biggest night of his life, the night when he met Pirog for the WBO middleweight belt, his grandmother died. She’d raised him, and the two were particularly close.

When Jacobs walked to the ring that night to face Pirog, he was an emotional mess. He felt he needed to compete and win the title as a way to honor a woman who’d been so vitally important in his life.

But he had little in him and was stopped by a vastly underrated Pirog in five rounds.

Just 10 months after the defeat, Jacobs learned he had osteosarcoma, which is cancer of the bone. He had to walk with the assistance of a walker. According to cancer.org, the five-year survival rate of a person with osteosarcoma that has not metastasized, or spread, is 60 to 80 percent.

Daniel Jacobs conquered cancer and earned the WBA middleweight title. (Getty)
Daniel Jacobs conquered cancer and earned the WBA middleweight title. (Getty)

Fortunately for Jacobs, his cancer hadn’t spread. He had 25 radiation treatments and had surgery using something called CyberKnife, a non-invasive way of removing tumors from sensitive areas of the body.

One of his first thoughts after being declared cancer-free was about a return to the ring.

And now, a little more than three years since his return, he’s set to face his biggest challenge since he met Pirog.

In Quillin, he’s meeting a large, confident and powerful middleweight who is 32-0-1 with 23 knockouts.

It’s a fight Jacobs has wanted for a long time. And he believes if he wins it – “When I win it,” he says, one of the few times his voice is ever stern – he’ll finally hit stardom.

“We’re in a smoking hot division with a lot of truly outstanding fighters,” Jacobs said. “In my opinion, a win in impressive fashion for either of us, me over him or him over me, would make the sport’s next superstar.”

It’s hard to tell sometimes with highly regarded, heavily hyped young prospects whether the power they show during their rise is simply a function of relatively weak opposition or if it’s truly a weapon.

Jacobs is still considered a hard hitter, and he’s gone 8-0 with eight knockouts since his comeback from his battle with cancer. But by his own admission, he’s more of a boxer-puncher than a pure slugger.

And he’s just fine with that.

“The ability to hit and not get hit, that’s what boxing is all about and that separates, a lot of times, the good boxers from the truly great ones,” Jacobs said. “That’s what was so important for Floyd Mayweather his whole career. I feel my foundation, from my days as an amateur, is as a traditional, classic boxer. I score points. I hit and don’t get hit in return.

“As I’ve grown and matured, I think I’ve become what you’d call a boxer-puncher. I rely on my boxing ability, but I have that power that helps me win fights. If I need it, it’s there.”

He’s likely to need it, as well as a hardened chin, to get past formidable opposition such as Quillin.

Jacobs, despite his miraculous recovery and return, has gotten slammed by a segment of the fan base for a failure to fight the best in his division.

The Quillin bout, he said, is the first in what he hopes will be a series of significant fights.

“Every fight is important as you’re on the way up and you’re learning and figuring out what it takes to be a professional and to succeed as a professional,” Jacobs said. “But now, I’m ready. I’m ready for whatever is out there and I look forward to giving the fans a series of fights that they talk about for a long, long time. Hopefully, this fight with Peter is the first of many of them.”