By: Hans Themistode
Things got pretty confusing following the end of Gabriel Rosado vs Daniel Jacobs this past weekend. After witnessing what many believed was a close decision win for Rosado, he was left incredulous when the judges gave the split decision nod to Jacobs instead.
What made things truly confusing is when the announcer stated “from Philadelphia,” before saying the name Daniel Jacobs. The problem is that Rosado is from Philadelphia, not Jacobs. It may have been a simple mistake that was quickly fixed, but for Rosado, he believes they got it right the first.
“They said from Philadelphia and I raised my hands up and then next you know he won,” said Rosado following following the loss. “He was even surprised but Yo I felt I won the fight. I surprised him. I outboxed him, out jabbed him, I countered him, I made him miss big shots. That man didn’t do nothing to me.”
According to the official numbers, Rosado’s words don’t exactly ring true. In terms of jabs, Rosado held the edge by only one, 22 to 23. Both men landed the same amount of shots to the body, 78-78 and it was Jacobs who held the small edge in terms of power punches landed, 56-55.
The passive and tentative manner in which both fighters fought was a far cry from how they predicted their contest would go down.
With bad blood written all over this event, Jacobs promised to hurt Rosado for the nonstop trash talking that he had thrown in his direction for years. Rosado also promised fireworks, yet, from the opening bell there was nothing explosive about their contest. Instead of a back and forth slugfest, a slow, lackluster fight took place.
Following their 12 dull rounds, Jacobs admitted to getting caught up in the emotions and tried too hard to knock Rosado out. For Rosado though, that was exactly what he was expecting and Jacobs fell right into his trap.
“I’m a veteran so I let the emotions get to him. I let him get caught up but I fought a disciplined fight, a veteran fight, a world-class fight. This guy went to battle with GGG (Gennadiy Golovkin), this guy went to battle with Canelo Alvarez and I made it look easy”
With the loss to Jacobs representing the 13th of his career, Rosado has won just four of his past 14 fights. That in turn has left him completely clueless as to what he’ll do next.
“I don’t know man. I’m a veteran. I don’t know why they didn’t give me a decision, I thought I won. I put on a boxing lesson.”