bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

His doctor first diagnosed it as a pinched nerve. Daniel Jacobs thought the pain running down his leg might be sciatica.
"We were both wrong," Jacobs said.
It was on a tour of the Middle East when the boxer first felt numbness in his leg. He ignored it at first, thinking it would go away.
You've got to be a champion inside your heart and mind to be able to conquer something like that
Daniel Jacobs
But by the time he headed home, Jacobs was using a cane to walk. Three weeks later, he was in a wheelchair.
An MRI showed a tumour on his spine. A biopsy showed it to be malignant.
Hard to imagine that just weeks earlier Jacobs had entered a ring in California full of energy and in the best shape of his life. It was short work, with Jacobs knocking his guy out in the first round to continue a comeback from the only loss of his pro career.

Now he was in the fight of his life, facing a foe he didn't totally understand.
"By that point in my mind boxing was the furthest thing to think about," Jacobs said. "My life was No 1 and having a life for my family and getting better so I could be a father to my son."
Doctors who removed the tumour said he would never fight again. It was too close to his spine, and the spine is in play with almost every punch a fighter takes.
But tonight he will go into the ring to defend his WBA middleweight title against veteran Sergio Mora.
He'll do it on US national television from Barclays Centre in his hometown of Brooklyn.
After beating cancer, he's not too concerned about anything he'll face in the ring.
"It wasn't for the faint of heart," Jacobs said of a fight that cost him the better part of two years in the prime of his career. "You've got to be a champion inside your heart and mind to be able to conquer something like that. It just proves I can jump over any hurdle, any obstacle."
If that's not a mindset Jacobs was born with, it's one he has embraced ever since an encounter with a bully led him to a boxing gym for the first time when he was in eighth grade. He learned enough to beat the bully in a fight a few weeks later, but what he learned most was that he had found his true calling.
"Little did I know I'd fall in love with it," the 28-year-old said. "There was just something about the smell of the gym … I felt like I was at home."

Jacobs was a top amateur, winning national titles in the Golden Gloves and becoming the AAU middleweight champion in 2006. He turned pro the next year.
Jacobs won his first 20 fights before being stopped in the fifth round of his 2010 bout with Dmitry Pirog. The loss was devastating, but Jacobs came back to win his next two fights within the distance.
Then the tumour was discovered, and Jacobs began a battle of another sort.
Jacobs finally began training again after his last radiation treatments. For months he laboured in the gym, hoping he would find what he once had.
"I always said to myself that if I wasn't 100 per cent ready in the gym I wouldn't risk my life inside a boxing ring," he said. "But one day I started sparring and it started to feel like things were getting better. I started to get my touch back, my pivots and old moves like I used to do."
The real test, though, came in his first fight back, and Jacobs passed it by knocking out Josh Luteran in the first round.
Jacobs would go on to win the WBA version of the 160-pound title, though he is still not the first name people talk about in the middleweight division. That could change, however, if he gets - and wins - fights against the likes of Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.
Associated Press


Boxer Daniel Jacobs takes long road back from career-ending blow

Daniel Jacobs (left) battles against Chris Fitzpatrick during a boxing match in New York in December 2012. Jacobs won when Fitzpatrick did not come out for round 5. Photo: AP

Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico is a possible contender to face Daniel Jacobs. Photo: Reuters 

Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan poses after defeating Willie Monroe Jnr in a middleweight bout in May. Photo: AP

Sport

Boxing

In beating cancer, New Yorker has already triumphed in the biggest fight of his life and has little to fear as he steps back into the ring


His doctor first diagnosed it as a pinched nerve. Daniel Jacobs thought the pain running down his leg might be sciatica. "We were both wrong," Jacobs said. An MRI showed a tumour on his spine. A biopsy showed it to be malignant.


Boxer Daniel Jacobs takes long road back from career-ending blow

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In beating cancer, New Yorker has already triumphed in the biggest fight of his life and has little to fear as he steps back into the ring

In beating cancer, New Yorker has already triumphed in the biggest fight of his life and has little to fear as he steps back into the ring