Canelo: Jacobs lost by knockout, but this can happen to anyone

By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez believes he can take down any opponent he fights.

Even though he has displayed a granite chin throughout his career, the champion of the hard-hitting middleweight also realizes that anyone can be eliminated. That is why the Mexican superstar does not attach great importance to the fact that one of Daniel Jacobs' two defeats came by TKO.

"Look, he's a strong fighter," Alvarez told reporters ahead of a news conference on Wednesday at the MGM Grand. "He's a great fighter. He has a knockout loss against him, but it can happen to anyone. You know, you do not see and get caught, this can happen to anyone in boxing. But at the end of the day, we are only two days away. We'll see on Saturday night how everything unfolds.

The last time Jacobs fought in Las Vegas, his middleweight title battle unfolded differently than the Brooklyn native envisions Alvarez's fight Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena (DAZN).

Jacobs was beating Russian Dmitry Pirog by the same score, 39-37, on all three scorecards before his fight completely switched early in the fifth round. Pirog pierced Jacobs with a right hand that left Jacobs lying on his back.

Jacobs tried to get up, but referee Robert Byrd stopped counting at five and used his hand to stop Jacobs from trying to get up. Jacobs protested and shouted, "I'm OK" at Byrd, but their fight for the Pirog WBO middleweight championship was halted at 57 seconds of the fifth round in July 2010 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Sergio Mora and Gennady Golovkin abandoned Jacobs in subsequent bouts.

He returned from a knockdown in the first round to stop Mora in the seventh round of the August 2015 match at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Jacobs rose from his fourth knockdown against Golovkin, but the former middleweight champion defeated Jacobs by unanimous decision in March 2017 at Madison Square Garden.

The 28-year-old Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) is listed as a 4-1 favorite over the 32-year-old Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) in his 12 round WBA fight for Alvarez and WBC middleweight titles and Jacobs IBF 160 pounds.

Keith Idec is a senior writer / columnist for BoxingScene.com. It can be found on Twitter @Idecboxing.