Danny Jacobs, Marcus Browne & Terrell Gausha Are Big Hits On Broadway
Photo by Rich Kane — Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions
by Sarah Deming
NEW YORK, N.Y.–Do I want to see a cancer survivor get hit?
This is what I always ask myself when Danny “Miracle Man” Jacobs (above) gets in the ring. The Brooklyn middleweight is on an astonishing comeback after beating spinal cancer. This week he provided a dramatic beginning to Golden Boy’s new Monday Night Fights at the Best Buy Theatre, broadcast on the recently launched Fox Sports 1.
It was a step up in class for Jacobs, 25–1 (22 KOs), who faced Dominican New Yorker Giovanni Lorenzo, 32–5 (24 KOs), an experienced contender with title bids against Sebastian Sylvester and Felix Sturm.
The first round was a close one but good for Jacobs, who caught Lorenzo with a lead right a minute in and did well working up and down with the jab. At round’s end, Lorenzo began grinning, as though he had figured something out.
Two of the three judges gave the second round to Lorenzo. I had the creeping sense that Jacobs was the physically weaker man, and worried that Lorenzo seemed to be walking through his shots. In addition, the two had some words about head butts.
Jacobs did great work in the third, moving his upper body to evade Lorenzo’s attack, and showing great angles. After a low blow, Jacobs took a moment to recover. The crowd began chanting “Brownsville.”
Whether it was outrage over the groin punch, distress at a cut that had opened, or the invocation of that infamous Brooklyn neighborhood, Jacobs kicked into miracle gear. Ducking left, he threw a thumping lead right that caught Lorenzo on the top of the head, disorienting him.
Jacobs knew to finish. Running Lorenzo to the ropes, he ended it with a brutal barrage. Referee Steve Willis called it off at 2:05 of the third round, the first stoppage loss for Lorenzo and a truly impressive victory for the Miracle Man.
I still don’t want to see Danny Jacobs get hurt, but fighting is what he does, and there is no point in surviving if we can’t do what we love.
In the co-main event, the Bronx’s hard-hitting Eddie Gomez moved to 15–0 (10 KOs) with a fourth round stoppage of Steven Chambers of Philadelphia, who fell to 24–3 (6 KOs).
Chambers was rangy, with a long suffering look that recalled depression-era fighters. He was in deep trouble in the first round, when he took a beating off a hard overhand right and barely made it to the bell. Referee Steve Smoger, adorable in his high-waisted pants, watched carefully.
The second and third brought more abuse for Chambers, who was, like many Philly fighters, too brave for his own good. Chambers had no defense to speak of, and seemed oddly content to stand at close quarters with his shorter, stronger foe. Gomez teed off; the only question was if he would punch himself out before getting the stoppage.
In the fourth, Chambers made his move. Gomez was carrying his hands very low, and Chambers caught him with some clean rights and lefts, but his miserable kayo percentage says it all. Once Chambers had his say, it was all Gomez. At 2:33 of the fourth, Steve Smoger had seen enough.
In the post-fight interview, Eddie Gomez gave a shout out to Luis Collazo, whose defeat of Chambers last October may have softened him up for Gomez.
Entering the ring, Gomez carried two flags in his corner, the Honduran and an unusual yellow, black, and white one that read “Garifuna.” My neighbor on press row was from a Central American news outlet and told me Garifuna was a language spoken by black Hondurans on the country’s East coast.
“Who is the greatest Honduran boxer?” I asked him.
He thought for a while, then said, “We’re known for soccer.”
Perhaps it’s Eddie Gomez.
On the undercard, Bronx junior lightweight Emmanuel Gonzales, 11–0 (7 KOs), towered over his designated victim, Michael Doyle of Mobile, Alabama, 2–3 (1 KOs). Doyle staged only token offense, despite his tee-shirt’s claim that he was a spitting cobra of destruction. Gonzales should be stopping men like this. The result was an unimpressive unanimous decision of 140–136 on all three cards.
2012 Olympian “Sir” Marcus Browne (above, top) of Staten Island did Atlas Cops and Kids proud with his sixth early stoppage in as many fights. From the opening bell, Browne stalked Robert “The Golden Tiger” Hill, 1–1, landing power shots with both hands. The golden tiger was driven to extinction after just 59 seconds.
“I knighted myself when I got to England,” Browne said of his nickname.
His conditioning coach, Luis Ruiz, told me they have been working wind sprints, ladder drills, and parachute training, but if Browne keeps knocking people out in the first round, he might never get to show off his stamina.
“He’s a very good listener and a perfectionist,” says Ruiz, a retired MMA fighter with 27 fights.
When I complimented Ruiz on his seemingly unscathed ears, he bent one back to show me the place where it had been ripped off and reattached.
The televised portion of the evening began with Browne’s Olympic teammate Terrell Gausha of Cleveland, 4–0 (2 KOs), against Austin “Speedy” Marcum of Logan, West Virginia, 5–3 (3 KOs).
Gausha seems plagued by bad luck. He was one of my favorite members of the 2012 Olympic squad and one of the few American men to actually win a fight, but he got robbed in the quarterfinals against India’s Vijender Singh. (Editor’s note: Singh has since suffered his own share of setbacks.)
On Monday, Gausha’s professional record was incorrectly listed in the press pack and bout sheet as 9–2 (3 KO’s).
Recently, after one day, he recanted a public stand he had taken against wearing red, white, and blue in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict. On Monday, he engineered a compromise by wearing a blue so dark it was almost black with darling white polka dots and red trim.
The minute Gausha began boxing, the temperature in the room changed. Here was an artist at work. The left hand was especially elegant: beautiful off-speed jabs, check hooks, hooks off the right hand. Speedy was putting up a fight, too, the first opponent of the night to actually attempt to win, but he was out on his feet at the end of the first round and finished at 1:04 in the second. Here’s hoping Gausha’s luck stays good.
A sloppy swing bout matched New York novice junior middleweights Kamal “Double Barrel” Muhammed (0–1) and Gary “Buddha” Beriguette, 1–0 (1 KO). Buddha silenced the Double Barrel with a workmanlike attack, winning 39–36 (twice), 38–36. Both men were bloody at the final bell
Despite its corporate name, the Best Buy Theatre was a great place to see fights, satisfyingly intimate and rowdy. A certain inebriated gentleman in the balcony kept trying to get the attention of a Corona girl named Lisa. Talk about stamina. Over the course of the evening, he declared his love, enumerated her many good qualities, and told her where he could be located after the fights. Lisa maintained a stony smile throughout.
