With a hometown crowd screaming “Brooooooklyyyyynnnnn”, Daniel Jacobs wanted to make an impression on his opponent Maciej Sulecki. However, the Polish boxer made it difficult at times and went 12 rounds with the former middleweight champion.

Jacobs got scores of 117-110, 116-111, and 115-112 to win the main event of the fight card at the Barclays Center in front of 7,892 fans and become the mandatory challenger to the WBA middleweight “super” champion Gennady Golovkin. Jacobs had faced Golovkin in March of last year and lost by unanimous decision in a close fight, and looks to facing Golovkin again.

In the first few rounds of the fight, Sulecki looked to give Jacobs fits with his jab and movement. It took a little while for Jacobs to adjust and then pick up the pace in the middle of the fight.

“[Sulecki] proved that he was a tough customer and belonged in here,” Jacobs said. “I came in prepared for everything that he had. Looking at his fights, I knew he was a tough customer.”

Jacobs made the adjustment in the middle rounds when he started to attack the body of Sulecki. At one point he connected on a combination to the body that forced Sulecki to back up. That got Daniel’s confidence to rise, and then at the end of the 8th round he started to slug it out with Sulecki. He showed that he was up for that, screaming at Sulecki after the exchanges.

While many felt that he had the advantage in the fight going into the 12th round, it seemed like there may not have been much of a great performance coming out of Jacobs. The crowd got an answer when Jacobs connected on a right hand that brought Sulecki to the canvas. He was able to beat the count and then go at it with Jacobs until the final bell.

“I think we abandoned the jab a little bit. But other than that, [I was] trying to go for the knockout because I knew the fans wanted a good show. But, at the end of the day, I thought I did very well to grab a unanimous decision.”

With the win, Jacobs now has a record of 34-2 and Sulecki gets the first loss of his professional career.