Anyone else watch Pirog's last fight?

[JazMerkin]

I dunno about whether Jacobs would beat Pirog again, to me he's still some way off although he is sorting out that lazy jab, but to say his defeat is indicative of Pirog having his number is ignoring the fact Jacobs grandmother who raised him had just died. Ask yourself whether if you could completely concentrate on work in the few days after your mother had died.

I know people will bring up the Douglas example or Katsidis against JMM, but in both those cases they had a matter of weeks in training to come to terms with it & re-focus. It also ignores that we put too much on fighters to turn up in moments of intense grief and perform in a way wouldn't expect of others, just because a totally different person has done it in the past.

The thing is that Jacobs struggled mightily against Ishe Smith too. Pirog has more pop than Smith and you saw the result. Jacobs has a lot of troubles with fighters that have a little bit of slickness to their game. Someone like Pirog or Smith will always give him trouble imo.

Name me a fighter who has blown Smith away, he's a very good boxer. Both Shane Mosley & Floyd Mayweather have said he's the best sparring partner in the world. I'm not doubting that stylistic problems played a role and Pirog may very well have beaten Jacobs like that anyway, but the point is that seeing as we make excuses for fighters based on everything down them wearing the wrong socks, it's very likely that Jacobs was not near his best that night, particularly given that he was apparently in tears pre-fight. I'd favour Pirog to beat him again, I just think it's unfair to completely dismiss Jacobs off that one fight.

I agree with not dismissing Jacobs, but everything else being equal, the cards were heavily stacked against Pirog going into that fight. He's a Russian fighter with little to no name brought in as an opponent for a star up-and-coming prospect signed with Golden Boy, one of the top promoters in boxing. He travels to the United States to face Jacobs too on a Golden Boy card. They didn't even give him a post-fight interview! All I'm saying is that Jacobs and Kirkland and Pirog have things in their game they need to fix. Jacobs has trouble with the slickesque style. He needs to figure out how to deal with it better.

Yeah, I agree with all of that, and it was a very impressive performance from Pirog & it was disgraceful they ignored him post-fight. A lot depends on whether Roach is the right trainer for Jacobs imo.