Spike v Jacobs fight looks dead in the water as new opponent enters the mix

The chance of a massive fight with American star Danny Jacobs [33(29)-2(1)] looks to have passed for Spike O’Sullivan.

The Cork middleweight was the initial front-runner to face the Matchroom USA star in a big headline clash at the Barclays Centre in his native Brooklyn on Saturday April 28th.

33-year-old O’Sullivan made a big splash in December when he stopped touted American Antoine Douglas in the second round of a big chief support bout on a HBO card in Montreal – a win which saw him vault into title contention.

Jacobs made his Matchroom debut in November, dominating Luis Arias as he rebounded back from his narrow loss to three-belt champion Gennady Golovkin.

With Golovkin rematching Canelo Alvarez in May and WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders facing Martin Murray in the same month, the Sky Sports and HBO familiar O’Sullivan looked to be, from multiple perspectives, a ready-made opponent for Jacobs as he builds towards a third world title challenge.

After protracted negotiations, there looked to have been a breakthrough recently, with O’Sullivan [27(19)-2(1)] stating that he had agreed to terms for the fight.

However, Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn would subsequently reveal that the fight had hit a snag – which was no fault of O’Sullivan.

Tonight ESPN’s Dan Rafael reported that Jacobs will now face Polish light middleweight Maciej Sulecki [26(10)-0], with the two parties “close to a deal.”

The Florida-based 28-year-old last fought in October in Newark, outpointing former Dennis Hogan foe Jack Culcay over ten rounds. He also took the 0 of Hugo Centeno Jr and holds a win over Grzegorz Proksa.

The Murphys Boxing-promoted O’Sullivan is one fight into a four-fight deal with Golden Boy Promotions.