Start saying your goodbyes to the Liev Schreiber narrations.
In anticipation of the Oct. 26th vacant title fight between middleweights Daniel Jacobs and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, HBO releases Road to Jacobs vs. Derevyanchenko, its pre-fight promotional video highlighting both fighters.
The two middleweights will collide for a chance to claim the IBF world title, one that was stripped from Gennady Golovkin when he opted to face Vanes Martirosyan instead of Derevyanchenko as ordered by the IBF.
This fight has a little bit of an interesting backstory as Terry Rozier and Gary Stark Jr. (whom have worked together for nearly 20 years), serve as trainers to both fighters. In fact Jacobs and Derevyanchenko were often used to spar one another in camp, with Jacobs estimating that they sparred roughly 300 rounds together.
But because Jacobs and Derevyanchenko will now have to face one another for real, the trainers decided to split it up, with Rozier leading Jacobs’ camp and Stark leading Derevyanchenko’s.
“When I train my guys, they’re like family to me. You don’t want your family to fight your family,” Rozier says. “But they wanted this and it’s an opportunity that they couldn’t say no to, either one of them.
“When it came down to the nitty-gritty, I had to side with Danny because I’ve been him since the beginning...It’s definitely awkward. Everything is awkward when it comes to this one. These are both my guys! Even to this moment if I talk to Sergiy I’ll tell him ‘you know I don’t like this.’”
The familiarity between the fighters and trainers provide an unique wrinkle in what is otherwise expected to be a very competitive bout. And we’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out.
Check out the full video feature above.