ATLANTA - Any judge assigned to work a title fight involving Badou Jack knows to prepare for the long haul, and for their scorecard to be called into question the moment it’s announced.
As much was the case in Jack’s disheartening split decision defeat to Jean Pascal in their secondary light heavyweight title fight this past Saturday at State Farm Arena, though there exists the argument that all three judges actually got it right in the end.
Canada’s Pascal (35-6-1, 20KOs) prevailed by matching scores of 114-112 on the cards of judges Barry Lindenman and Nelson Vazquez, while second-generation judge Julie Lederman turned in a 114-112 tally in favor of Jack (22-3-3, 13KOs). Both boxers scored knockdowns in their thrilling Showtime-televised clash, with Jack hitting the deck in round four and Pascal going down in the 12th and final round.
Both rounds were accurately scored 10-8 across the board, and among the nine rounds in which all three judges were in full agreement. Interestingly, each ringside official agreed with at least one other on 10 of the 12 scored rounds.
Pascal swept the first five rounds on all three cards, as did Jack in the championship rounds. All three judges also had Jack—a former two-division titlist—winning rounds six and eight.
Judges Lindenman and Vazquez additionally agreed on Pascal winning round seven.
Each judge only had one round apiece where they dissented from their peers.
Judge Lederman—the daughter of the late, famed judge and longtime HBO Boxing’s unofficial scorer Harold Lederman—was the lone official to award Jack round seven. The New York-based ring official had Jack sweeping rounds 6-12, with the two-point round in the 12th providing the margin of victory for the Las Vegas-based Swedish export on her scorecard.
Rounds nine and 10 were the only two in which Lindenman and Vazquez did not see eye to eye. North Carolina’s Lindenman had Pascal winning round nine while Vazquez and Lederman awarded the frame to Jack. The same formula applied in round ten, a frame where Puerto Rico’s Vazquez was on his own in scoring it in favor of Pascal.
By fight’s end, social media chatter suggested a split audience with many viewers expecting the contest to end in a draw. The crowd on hand was in favor of Jack, with boos raining down upon the announced final verdict.
The ending wasn’t anything new for Jack, who has landed in either a split or majority decision or a draw in five of his eight career title fights. A 6th fight among that lot—his April 2016 super middleweight title defense versus former 168-pound titlist Lucian Bute—initially ruled a draw before being changed to a disqualification win for Jack after Bute tested positive for a banned substance.
Pascal has actually enjoyed far better luck in close calls. The former lineal light heavyweight champion and current secondary titlist rode a pair of knockdowns of Bernard Hopkins all the way to a finish line, defending his championship in a 12-round draw which easily could’ve easily landed in favor of Hopkins in their first fight. A July 2015 win over Yunieski Gonzalez was heavily disputed, while a 12-round majority decision defeat to Eleider Alvarez did not seem as close as the draw verdict on one scorecard.
Even in reclaiming a 175-pound title of sorts, Pascal managed a technical decision win over Staten Island, New York native Marcus Browne. The truncated affair took place this past August in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, where Browne had spent more than half his career but whose first career defeat came down to a one-point margin on all three scorecards after being floored three times by Pascal.
In trading knockdowns on Saturday, it appeared as if Pascal and Jack would head to a stalemate. The three ringside scorers were split but managed to land on a winner in the end, one which came with dispute but not to the point of having to harshly judge any of the judges.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox