By David Finger
Fightnews.com® is sad to report the passing for former WBC super-bantamweight champion Thierry Jacob of Calais, France earlier this week. Jacob, whose death was announced by Calais’s mayor Natacha Bouchart on Facebook, was 59-years old.
Jacobs was perhaps best remembered for his stunning victory over Daniel Zaragoza on March 20th, 1992 by way of 12-round unanimous decision in front of his hometown fans in Calais. His win over Zaragoza would give him the WBC super-bantamweight title, and he would hold onto that belt for three months before dropping it to Tracy Harris Patterson in Albany, New York. Following the loss to Patterson, Jacob would finish the year fighting for the WBA super-bantamweight against legendary Puerto Rican puncher Wilfredo Vasquez. Although the Frenchman was leading on one of the judge’s scorecards (the other two had it even after seven rounds), Vasquez was able to stop Jacob in the 8th round. Nonetheless the close nature of the fight allotted Jacob another crack at that belt against the Puerto Rican in June of 1993. Vasquez would again stop Jacob, this time in the tenth round, and Jacobs would only fight once more in 1994 before retiring from the ring.
In addition to his WBC world title, a then 22-year old Jacob would fight for the IBF bantamweight title in July of 1987 against Kelvin Seabrooks. Against Seabrooks, the undefeated Jacob would end up dropping the American three times and was comfortably ahead on all three judges’ scorecards before Seabrooks scored the come from behind stoppage in the ninth round. Jacob would again fight for an IBF title in November of 1988, this time for the IBF super bantamweight title against Venezuelan Jose Sanabria. Once again, Jacob took the lead early but was stopped, this time in round six (two judges had him winning the fight at the time of the stoppage).
Despite the two come from behind losses for the world titles, Jacob remained one of the most dangerous bantamweights of the late 80s and early 90s, and in September of 1990 Jacob scored a major victory over London England’s Duke McKenzie in front of his fans in Calais via twelve round unanimous decision. With the victory Jacob would capture the EBU European bantamweight belt, a title he would defend two times in Calais before getting his third world title shot against Zaragoza.
Jacob’s final record as a professional prizefighter in a career that spanned just under ten years was 39-6, 20 KOs.
