De La Hoya praises cancer survivors Jacobs, Dirrell
“I will absolutely be there. Daniel Jacobs and Anthony Dirrell are the bravest fighters that I have ever met,” said De La Hoya, 41, whose mother, Cecilia, died of breast cancer in October 1990. “I will tell them both, ‘Thank you for demonstrating courage and thank you for demonstrating hope and thank you for being an example of never giving up.'”
Jacobs (28-1, 25 knockouts), 27, will be on hand as a replacement for Paulie Malignaggi as a Showtime boxing analyst for Saturday’s tripleheader headlined by IBF welterweight titlist Shawn Porter’s defense against Kell Brook.
Coming off last weekend’s fifth-round knockout of Jarrod Fletcher at Barclays Center in his native Brooklyn, N.Y., Jacobs successfully battled osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer and Dirrell overcame a scare from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“Watching Daniel Jacobs fulfill his dreams not only impacted the boxing community but he can impact anybody who has gone through those difficult times with cancer or who have been affected by cancer, whether it’s a family member or a loved one,” said De La Hoya.