By Keith Idec
Badou Jack disputes James DeGale’s claim that Jack didn’t really want their fight.
The WBC world super middleweight champion claims he was waiting patiently to find out the date of his super middleweight championship unification fight against DeGale. It officially was announced two months ago and will take place Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (Showtime).
The DeGale-Jack clash has been a logical fight since April 30, when Showtime televised DeGale’s unanimous-decision victory over Rogelio Medina and Jack’s majority draw with Lucian Bute from D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C.
“That is all a lie,” Jack said during a recent conference call in response to DeGale’s charge that Jack really didn’t want to fight DeGale. “But I’ve been ready since right after the fight, I told you guys, we could fight in June. I told you I’ve been waiting for [promoter] Floyd [Mayweather Jr.] and [Mayweather Promotions CEO] Leonard [Ellerbe] to let me know when the date is.
“I’ve been on Leonard every day for the whole summer. Like, come on, it’s been six, seven months – I want to fight. You know what I’m saying? But whatever’s the case – if he was greedy about money, whoever’s fault it is, we got the fight done right now. And, you know, I’m ready. I don’t care about old fights, if he went 12 rounds with this guy and this guy. Styles make fights. Me and DeGale have to fight, so whatever happened in the past, it don’t matter.”
Sweden’s Jack (20-1-2, 12 KOs) appeared to do enough to earn a win over Canada’s Bute (32-3-1, 25 KOs), only to have two judges, Glen Rick Crocker and Omar Mintun, score their 12-rounder even (114-114). One judge, Steven Rados, scored the fight for Jack (117-111).
Earlier that night, DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs) made his 12-rounder against Mexico’s Medina (37-7, 31 KOs) more difficult than necessary. London’s DeGale, the IBF 168-pound champion, still won a unanimous decision by comfortable margins on all three scorecards (117-111, 117-111, 116-112).
“If I’m being honest, the only reason why this fight hasn’t happened quicker is because Badou Jack didn’t want it,” DeGale said during the conference call. “After the Bute fight, he probably didn’t want it. And then after the Medina fight, because I boxed [like] rubbish, because Medina went 12 rounds with me, Badou Jack has got lot of confidence.
“His team – Leonard’s got a lot of confidence, Mayweather’s got a lot of confidence [from] him seeing me go twelve rounds. And it was lackluster performance against Medina. But you shouldn’t take too much away from that. That’s what I’m trying to say. Don’t take too much away from me fighting Medina and performing like that. That’s the only reason this fight is getting made.”
Showtime will televise DeGale-Jack as the main event of a doubleheader Saturday night. The opener of a telecast set to start at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT will pit Puerto Rico’s Jose Pedraza (22-0, 12 KOs), the IBF featherweight champion, against Baltimore’s Gervonta Davis (16-0, 15 KOs).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.