In this video interview with Fight Hub TV, IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs fields questions on Canelo’s team demanding a second-day weigh-in and why he thinks they’re trying to keep him as weak as possible heading into the fight.
Jacobs on his rehydration clause:
“I mean it’s very frustrating because I’ve heard the interview where Canelo said that it wasn’t up to him and he had no say-so whether the IBF rules was implemented. But as we know, the IBF doesn’t put those rules on us [for unification fights]. They say that it’s up to the fighters’ discretion. You know I ain’t want that! Right? You know I just wanted to fight for the belts, get my rest, wake up and fight a great fight.
“Not that I need any advantages, because I don’t need any advantages for Canelo Alvarez. I simply need to be my best fighter inside that ring come that night. But it was Golden Boy and their team that put that stipulation in there. And this just sucks because this is not the history of boxing, this is not true champion behavior. If you’re a champion in whatever weight class you are in you will fight those guys with no — I mean he’s done it with Cotto and Khan and all these other guys he’s put weight stipulations on.
“So, I mean, when you think about ‘true champion,’ I don’t know if we can really throw that out there because even though he’s a stellar guy, even though he’s an amazing champion, but you gotta be true to the sport, and you can’t look for advantages in any way that you can get ‘em. You know what I mean? Because if you’re gonna beat a guy, beat me fair and square.”
On what Golden Boy’s weight stipulation specifically is:
“That if I weigh over 170lbs come the morning of [the fight] that I had to pay — first it was $250,000 a pound, we got it down to $100,000. So this is, really — you guys are seeing the concerns that they have. They’re thinking because I’m a big middleweight that I need an advantage and they wanna keep me as small and dehydrated as possible. But it won’t work. For my last fight I felt great, I did, and followed the rules of the IBF and weighing 170 the next morning and I felt great for my fight. So, I’m not really looking forward to physically being drained but I am highlighting the fact that these guys put that in there because it’s not supposed to be there.”
On how he would respond to those who would say they’re justified in asking for the morning weigh-in because he didn’t do one in his fight against Golovkin:
“Well I would respond by simply saying that even still, you don’t control boxing because you are the biggest man in the sport. You don’t start dictating what happens in weigh stipulations — there’s all of these different things. I mean, you fight a fair fight and you weigh-in honest, 160lbs, and then you come in the fight however much you wanna weigh. Because that’s been the history of boxing.
“Never in my life — this is like new to me, this whole weight stipulation thing and contracts on everything else other than. And for me, I’m a true fighter, so I’m gonna do the things that I need to do and I understand that this is the biggest fight that can be made so I had to take that chance.”