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Matchroom is working on a Dec. 14 show that they’d like to feature Daniel Jacobs’ move up to super middleweight, where he would — in theory — face fellow former middleweight titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in the main event.
The show would also feature a super flyweight title unification between Juan Francisco Estrada and Kal Yafai, plus the return of former 140-pound titleholder Maurice Hooker, who is moving up to welterweight.
Jacobs (35-3, 29 KO) is coming off of a May 4 decision loss to Canelo Alvarez in one of the bigger fights of 2019, a performance where he was competitive but no one argued for him having won the fight. The 32-year-old said after that he was starting to have trouble making 160, and a move to 168 has been in the cards since.
Chavez (51-3-1, 33 KO) is now 33 years old and hasn’t been seen by much of anyone since his May 2017 loss to Canelo, a miserable non-effort where he was shut out over 12-rounds in the 164-pound catchweight fight. In all reality, Chavez has never been a genuine top fighter, and once he was exposed by Sergio Martinez in 2012, things have been pretty much downhill. He struggled with Bryan Vera in two fights, was pummeled into submission by Andrzej Fonfara in 2015, and his last three wins have been over mediocre at best fighters.
He did fight on Aug. 10 in Mexico, beating journeyman Evert Bravo via first round knockout, weighing in a little over the light heavyweight limit for that fight.
Jacobs-Chavez is the fight Matchroom wants, but it’s not anything I’d count on. There has been all sorts of talk the last two years about Chavez fighting this name guy or that name guy, but none of it has happened. It might happen, but don’t pencil it in until it’s officially announced.
The Estrada-Yafai fight, which Patrick talked about earlier, is natural matchmaking, as both are promoted by Matchroom and there’s only so much to do with either one of them in terms of getting them meaningful fights.
Estrada (40-3, 27 KO) won the WBC 115-pound title on April 26 from Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in a rematch, and went to Mexico on Aug. 24 for a successful home defense against a game but ultimately outclassed Dewayne Beamon. The 29-year-old would surely like to take the WBA belt from Yafai (26-0, 15 KO), who at 30 has held his title since Dec. 2016, but has really never broken through, facing a series of rather forgettable challengers. Yafai has been openly itching for the big fight that hasn’t come to him yet, and this would certainly qualify.
Hooker (26-1-3, 17 KO) lost his WBO junior welterweight title on July 27 in Texas, stopped in the sixth round of an action-packed fight with Jose Ramirez. Hooker has already stated that he’ll move up to 147, where if successful, he could be an attractive opponent for a name fighter next year. One scenario could see him facing Terence Crawford in 2020, given the fact that Top Rank has few options for Crawford, and Bob Arum and Al Haymon simply aren’t working together, while Arum and Eddie Hearn have done so for the right fights this year.