Badou Jack interested in DeGale unification fight in 2016

By Boxing News - 12/17/2015 - Comments

badou8By Scott Gilfoid: WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) says he’s interested in facing 29-year-old IBF 168lb title holder James DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs) in a unification fight in 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Badou recently took the scalp of DeGale’s fellow compatriot George Groves last September in winning a 12 round split decision in his first defense of his WBC 168lb title.

Badou wants to fight DeGale and former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. However, the fight with Chavez Jr will need to wait for him to get through his injury problems, because he is still not ready to fight, says Badou. As such, Badou is willing to fight DeGale as soon as possible.

In the meantime, Badou plans to fight in February of 2016, as soon as he finds out whom his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. has for him.

“It’s going to happen next year, for sure. I’d prefer to fight DeGale to Julio Chavez Jr because he’s got the belt,” Badou said to behindthegloves.com. “I think he’s [DeGale] a better fighter than Chavez Jr. If the money is right, why not? Right now, we’re focusing on Las Vegas and doing it here in America. We can start with Chavez, but I heard he’s not ready yet. We’ll see. He’s a very tough guy who comes to fight, but DeGale is a better fighter.”

DeGale is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision win over Canadian favorite Lucian Bute last November on the 28th in a fight that took place in Canada. DeGale won the fight by the controversial scores of 117-111, 117-111, and 116-112. Many boxing fans thought the fight was a lot closer than the wide scores the three judges handed down.

Some fans thought that it was close enough to be seen as a draw. I was okay with either a narrow win for DeGale or a draw. Either would have been fine, as it was a very, very close fight, and neither fighter really established themselves as the clear winners in my book. What was surprising was how poor DeGale looked in that fight. He made the 35-year-old Bute look like he was still in his prime rather than a fighter that is clearly on the downside of his career.

In the last three years, Bute had suffered losses to Carl Froch and Jean Pascal, and had come into the fight with DeGale having lost two out of his last four fights. Do not ask me why DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn selected a fighter with a 2-2 record in his last 4 fights as a title challenger to DeGale, because the move was senseless.

“I’m training now and should be back in the ring in February,” Badou said. “I’m waiting for Floyd to tell me who I’m fighting.”

Given that Badou still does not have opponent picked out for his February fight, we are probably not talking about him facing the best fighter in the division. However, this is a voluntary defense for the talented 32-year-old Badou, so you cannot blame him one bit for taking a soft touch for his next defense of his belt.

Badou’s last opponent George Groves was his #1 WBC mandatory, so Badou now has two voluntary defenses coming for his title. This means that Badou technically does not need to face his top No.1 contender until at least 2017 if he chooses to fight consecutive voluntary defenses first. I doubt that Badou will do that though, as he really wants to face DeGale in a unification fight so that he can start collecting titles, and show the boxing world that he is the best fighter in the 168lb division.

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A fight against Chavez Jr could be one of Badou’s voluntary defenses in 2016. Chavez Jr does not have a top 15 ranking by the WBC. However, he is ranked at #5 by the WBA at this time. The only question about a fight against Chavez Jr is whether he will be healthy enough to fight in 2016. He has been dealing with a hand injury that he suffered in his last fight against Marcos Reyes last July, and it is still unclear whether he is going to be ready to fight Badou in the near future.

Badou is not going to sit idle waiting for Chavez Jr to lick his wounds from the Reyes fight forever, because he has big things he wants to accomplish.



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