Daniel Jacobs’ long-awaited return to the Barclays Center finally is complete with the announcement of Jacobs’ opponent.
HBO will run a live card at the Barclays Center on April 28 with Jacobs facing Maciej Sulecki in a middleweight bout in the main event. It is the second fight of a multi-fight agreement between Jacobs and promoter Eddie Hearn, who made the announcement with a press conference set to take place in New York on February 20.
Hearn also announced two other big fights set to round out the HBO tripleheader. The co-main event will see unbeaten heavyweight contender Jarrell Miller face former WBC world heavyweight title challenger Johann Duhaupas in a WBA heavyweight title eliminator. The current WBA “super” champion is Anthony Joshua, who is set to defend his belt against Joseph Parker in a WBA, IBF and WBO title unification bout on March 31, while Manuel Charr holds the WBA’s “regular” heavyweight title. Miller is ranked No. 3 in the WBA rankings while Duhaupas is the WBA’s No. 14 ranked heavyweight.
The opening bout on that HBO card is the only world title fight: a WBA and IBF Female lightweight unification bout between WBA champion Katie Taylor and IBF champion Victoria Bustos. Taylor won the then-vacant title last year and defended it once while Bustos has held the title and occasionally defend it since 2013.
Jacobs recovered from a March 2017 loss to Gennady Golovkin on pay-per-view by defeating Luis Arias in New York last November. Sulecki has not fought since last October when he defeated Jack Culcay on the undercard of the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight quarterfinals between Murat Gassiev and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, but that fight was a title eliminator for the IBF junior middleweight title, currently held by Jarrett Hurd.
