Some have thought that Ryder's win was a hometown (the fight was held in London) decision, but the British judge scored the fight for Jacobs 115-113 (my score) with the American and neutral (Monaco) judge giving Ryder the edge at 115-113.
The first six rounds were terribly boring and reminded me a lot of Jacobs's dreadfully dull split decision win over Gabriel Rosado in his last fight but Ryder began to pick up the pace late in the sixth round and with Ryder working harder, the fight had its moments of fistic exchange over the second half of the fight.
Jacobs clearly wasn't in top shape as he was badly sucking wind in the final four rounds and Ryder dominated most of the rounds but I did score the eleventh round for Jacobs, which was enough to give him the close edge on my scorecard at seven rounds to five.
Even as the fight was winding down, I had a feeling that the fight was going to be decided by one fact- did any of the judges give any of the first half of the fight to Ryder?
If they did, Ryder was going to be in good shape.
If not, it was more likely to go the way of Daniel Jacobs.
And on my card, I gave Jacobs the first six rounds but wouldn't have argued giving Ryder the sixth when he started his late fight run.
Judge Mike Fitzgerald gave Ryder the third, fourth, and sixth but gave Jacobs rounds nine and twelve, and not the eleventh- the one round that I thought Jacobs won.
Still, Fitzgerald's final scorecard was reasonable, even if he didn't go about it in the correct fashion.
Judge Jean Robert Laine's card for Ryder was closer to mine except he gave the third, fifth, and sixth (three and six were the closest swing rounds) to Ryder to give him the win.
I didn't think the right fighter won but the fight and the decision were close enough not to howl about without an off-the-wall scorecard involved.
The bigger story to me is the second consecutive listless performance from Daniel Jacobs, who has now struggled with limited pressure fighters in Gabriel Rosado and Ryder that he once would have shined against.
Daniel Jacobs has never been a fighter that I've been impressed with and his record shows that as he has two good wins ( his first-round blitz of Peter Quillin and his split decision over Sergey Dereyvanchenko) and his best accomplishment might be lasting twelve rounds against Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez in fights that some saw far closer than I.
If Jacobs is going nip and tuck with fighters such as Rosado and Ryder then he is easily on the downside of his career and could be on the verge of becoming a name opponent.
As for Ryder, he'll be in the mix for the WBA title picture, and should Canelo Alvarez want to go to England to fight for the first time, Ryder would be a natural opponent for Canelo.
Should things drag in the always-running derby, the WBA could force Ryder to face David Morrell, who holds one of the organization's minor titles at 168 pounds.
Boxing Challenge
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