Jack beats Dirrell, captures WBC title; Jacobs stops Truax

By Boxing News - 04/24/2015 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: #8 WBC contender Badou Jack (19-1-1, 12 KOs) pulled off a big upset tonight in beating a lethargic WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell (27-1-1, 22 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision to capture his WBC 168 pound title on Friday night at the UIC Pavilion, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The final judges’ scores were 114-114, 116-112 and 115-113. I had the fight scored a draw. It was poor scoring in my view. I felt that the referee didn’t do a good job of controlling the fouling that Jack was doing, as he frequently hit Dirrell with rabbit punches in the clinch, and he threw him on the canvas at one point. There was also a lot of low blows from Jack in the last four rounds of the fight.

Dirrell dominated the action in the first four rounds, but Jack came on in the next eight rounds to take the action to the inside where Dirrell didn’t have much in the way of skills for that part of the game.

With this victory, Jack will now be defending his WBC title against #1 WBC George Groves. You’d have to favor Jack over Groves based on the way he fought tonight.
“Anthony Dirrell is a hell of a fighter. I told him that I’m not scared of his barking,” Jack said after the fight.

Dirrell only has himself to blame for losing the fight because he could have won if he’d throw flurries and put his hands together to throw combinations instead of one punch at a time. He was never going to beat an inside pressure fighter like Jack by throwing punch at a time and looking to land counter shots.

The way to stop pressure fighters like Jack is to throw a lot of punches to keep him busy taking head shots. I think Dirrell’s older brother Andre Dirrell would have badly schooled Jack tonight because throws way more combinations than Anthony Dirrell and he moves a lot better than him around the ring.

I can’t see Jack holding onto his WBC title for very long. I think he’ll beat Groves, but I can’t see him being able to go very far with the title unless he faces guys that are perfect for his style.

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WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (29-1, 26 KOs) put in a lethargic performance tonight through the first 11 rounds, but he was able to come on strong in the 12th round to score a stoppage win over a badly over-matched Caleb Truax (25-2-2, 15 KOs). The time of the stoppage was 2:12 of the 12th round.

Jacobs was stunned by a right hand shot from Truax in the 10th round. But he came back to hurt Truax with a left-right to the head in the 12th. Moments later, Truax was given a standing eight count by the referee. When the action resumed, Jacobs flurried on Truax until the referee halted the contest.

Jacobs had the better skills of the two, but he just wasn’t letting his hands go the way he should have done earlier in the fight. One gets the sense that Jacobs could have scored an early stoppage if he’d just flurried on Truax in the first half of the fight, but he just wouldn’t do it.

Sooner or later, Jacobs will be ordered to face WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, and win that happens I see Jacobs losing badly. He just doesn’t seem to be firing on all 8 cylinders right now for him to compete against a talent like Golovkin.

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Light middleweight Roberto Garcia (37-3, 23 KOs) defeated James Stevenson (22-2, 15 KOs) by an 8 round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 78-73, 78-73, and 77-74.

Other boxing results on the card:

Keith Tapia KO 1 Jason Smith
Roberto Garcia UD 8 James Stevenson
Alex Martin UD 8 Jonathan Garcia
Rickey Edwards UD 6 Shiwone Gortman
Eddie Ramirez TKO 5 Jerome Rodriguez
Jose Felix Quezada KO 2 Jamar Saunders
Semajay Thomas TKO 2 Jose Santiago
Ramiro Carrillo TKO 2 Ramon Guevara



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