Ringside Report Looks Back at Boxer Gary Jacobs

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Scottish boxing is still an exciting place to be. There is a very decent small hall scene and given that Josh Taylor, arguably our most successful boxer of all time, remains active, there is still much to look forward to.

But in another time, a golden era, the 1990’S we also had another hero – Gary “The Kid” Jacobs 45-8, 26 KOs, a former European, British and Scottish title holder as well as a man who dared to dream and got his chance to live it when he took on Pernell Whittaker for the WBC belt.
A southpaw once described by Steve Bunce as “the best in Britain”, Jacobs was a southpaw dynamo who had a star of David on his trunks and power in his fists.

His professional debut came on the 20th of May 1985, at the Hospitality Inn in Glasgow, with a six rounds points win against John Conlan. Within 2 years he was winning the Scottish welterweight title as he beat Dave Douglas on points in the Plaza Ballroom, again in Glasgow. It came after Douglas had beaten Jacobs for the same title in the same venue six months before on points – sweet revenge.

Jacobs then defended the title, at the Albany Hotel – still in Glasgow on the 8th of June 1987 when he stopped Tommy McCallum in the fifth round.

Jacobs was being noticed and he was being rated, so graduation to the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow on the 19th of April 1988, he won the Commonwealth title in a tight fight against Wilf Gentzen. In November of that same year, he was to graduate to even grander surroundings as he retained the Commonwealth belt with a fourth-round knockout of Richard Rova in the Royal Albert Hall.

But in between Jacobs was in Las Vegas. In Caesar’s Palace Javier Suazo was knocked out in the tenth round which brought Jacobs the WBC international welterweight belt. Jacobs was no longer a British based fighter making a name for himself. He was now on an international stage.

There was one step that Jacobs had not managed, and the opportunity to get the Commonwealth and international belts, perhaps tell their own tale. Jacobs pursued and got opportunities and took them. But once he got back from Vegas, he had to defend his Commonwealth title again – this time in the less than glamorous Latchmere Leisure Centre in Wandsworth. It was a successful defense as he stopped Rocky Kelly in the seventh round. Both belts were then put on the line on the 5th of April 1989 when Jacobs scored a points win against the unbeaten in 35 fights, George Collins.

But, if you were getting noticed, then people will begin to plot your downfall. In three contests, Jacobs found his wheels falling off his bus. In November 1989, in Motherwell, he lost his Commonwealth crown to Donovan Boucher on points. Then he went to New York and lost on points to Buddy McGirt, before in early 1990, Jacobs was well ahead against Mickey Hughes in York Hall before the boxing gods gave Hughes the punch which dropped Jacobs to a heavy knockout. People still refer to it and talk about it in very glowing terms.

Jacobs was five years away from his biggest fight, and he started to collect two belts that had been missing from his mantelpiece – the British and European. In Glasgow, on the 20th of February 1992, Jacobs won the British title in a points win over Del Bryan. By July he had defended it successfully as he stopped Robert Wright, again in Glasgow in the sixth round.

In October he was in Paris, to take on the unbeaten Ludovic Proto. His first attempt to win the European (EBU) welterweight belt ended in a split decision defeat. But Jacobs was determined. In February of the following year, he returned to Paris and got revenge as he stopped Proto in the ninth. In September of 1993, he defended it against Daniel Bicchieray in Wembley, then did so again in early 1994 by winning on points against Tusikolita Nkalankete.

But his biggest win, on the road to that world title fight came on the 13th of April 1994, when he knocked out Alessandro Duran at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow in the eighth round to retain the belt once more.

Scotland had a worthy champion and Scotland hoped rather than expected – we had become that kind of nation…

On the 26th of August 1995, in Atlantic City, Jacobs found himself in the ring with Sweet Pea – Pernell Whittaker. Making an alleged $200,000 for the fight, Jacobs was facing the possibility it would make both his legacy and his financial future secure. On the line were the welterweight title from the WBC and the lineal championship. In the end Jacobs was not to make it. It was a tough ask for the Scot as Whittaker who had given up his recently won super welterweight title to face Jacobs and defend his welter title, was only the fourth man ever to win four world titles in four weight categories. It was a symmetry that was not to be challenged. Jacobs did knock the champ to the floor once, though it was a dubious knockdown, and Jacobs hit the floor three times in the final round. The wide scorecards were unfair to Jacobs who had been highly competitive in the early rounds though the result was certainly uncontestable.

Jacobs was never to hit those heights again and after a win against Edwin Murillo in Brent on the 13th of March 1996 for the IBF intercontinental belt, he lost a European title fight in the same year, three months later in Gravelines by being stopped in the seventh round by Patrick Charpentier. The following year, in July, in Kensington, Jacobs got in the ring for the final time and lost a decision to Yuri Epifantsev for the vacant IBF intercontinental middleweight title. Perhaps time had caught up with him.

Jacobs’ post-fight career as a trainer and personal trainer has not been the smoothest either. Scottish boxing promoter, Sam Kynoch and he had a fall out with someone he claimed he had helped. Kynoch’s connections to the defunct MGM/MTK Promotions are well known as he was for a time, their Group Managing Director. And although Jacobs did not disclose that this was the reason behind his split with Kynoch in the Scottish press, was down to personal reasons and disputes after eight years with Kynoch and his organization. Jacobs continued though to train and work in Glasgow.

I have seen Jacobs at fights, in the corner and his affection for the sport appears undiminished. It is surprising given, not just the hard-fought career he had but just three months after the fight with Whittaker, Jacobs was one of the men who helped carry Jimmy Murray from the ring as he was losing his life after a fight in a Glasgow hotel. There followed a riot and one of the worst moments in Scottish boxing history. That it involved walking tall and being supportive, one of our finest, is more than ironic, but it is on the shoulders of those like Jacobs that our sport gets carried.

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