Daniel Jacobs was just coming into his prime at 24 when he was diagnosed with cancer. He was 22-1 and ready to fight the best in his weight class. All of a sudden, he was fighting for survival.

Just two weeks after that 22th victory, in May 2011, Jacobs was told he had osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. His tumor was growing so fast that doctors said they caught it just days before it would have slowed his heart down. He had surgery through his back rather than his chest to leave his boxing career open. (Punches to the back are illegal.) He had 25 radiation treatments before being cancer free.

Jacobs returned to the ring in October 2012. He's 11-1 since his treatment and on Saturday night he fights Maciej Sulecki at Barclays Center.

"I think the biggest lesson that I've learned in life is to just live for the moment," Jacobs says. "Plan for the future but live for the moment. That's probably to me, the appreciate value. That's why every day I wake up and the sun can be beaming through the leaves and that's the highlight of my day."

Daniel Jacobs

Jacobs founded his "Get in the Ring Foundation" in 2013 after getting healthy again. Its mission is to provide families with knowledge to prevent childhood cancer and childhood obesity occurrences.

"It's very rewarding for me to know that I've created a foundation to help give me back to people in the same situation because I know full-fledged how hard it was to go through cancer physically, emotionally, financially, all across the board, so I said if I ever was in a position to give back, I would," Jacobs says.

Jacobs held the WBA middleweight title from August 2014 to March 2017 before losing it to Gennady Golovkin. With Golovkin's fight versus Canelo Alvarez falling through, there is a good chance Jacobs and GGG would be set for a rematch this fall. While Jacobs has Sulecki this week, GGG will fight Vanes Martirosyan, a replacement for Alvarez, on May 5.

Jacobs spoke to ThePostGame in February on Super Bowl Radio Row.

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