Badou Jack – Lucian Bute ends in draw

By Boxing News - 04/30/2016 - Comments

Badou Jack vs Lucian Bute(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME) By Jim Dower: WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (21-1-2, 12 KOs) found himself outworked tonight by former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (32-4, 25 KOs) in having to settle for a 12 round draw at the DC Armory in Washington, DC.

Badou fought well in the first four rounds, but Bute took over the fight from the 6th round on and appeared to win most if not all of the remaining rounds by out-punching the economical Badou. The final judges’ scores were 117-111 for Jack, and 114-114, 114-114. Boxing News 24 had Bute winning the final seven rounds of the fight to earn a victory. Jack was missing too many punches, and not throwing enough. Jack let the 36-year-old Bute outwork him and that’s obviously what the judges saw. I had Bute winning rounds 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. I couldn’t give Jack those rounds because he was missing so many punches and getting badly outworked by Bute. I think Bute was just the more talented fighter of the two. Jack is well connected in being promoted by Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he didn’t do enough work to deserve the win.

Jack wasn’t happy about the decision after the fight and neither was his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr., but it was Jack’s fault for not throwing enough shots, getting hit so frequently and missing countless punches. Jack looked really poor tonight, as did James DeGale in his undercard fight against Rogelio Medina.

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“I thought I won the fight,” said Jack afterwards. “That’s bull [expletive]. Maybe he won the last round. Eight rounds to four. I proved I was the better fighter. He’s a great fighter, but I won the fight. I want DeGale, of course.”

Jack said he’ll fight IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale next even though he didn’t win his fight tonight. Jack will move ahead and take the DeGale unification fight later this year on Showtime off the back of a draw instead of a win. That’s probably not a good idea because Jack needs closure because he didn’t prove he was better than Bute tonight. In fact, he was lucky to get a draw.

Mayweather then took the microphone and said “We need new judges. We need an even playing field.”

“It was a close fight,” said Bute. “I am very happy. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. It was a very close fight. Of course, I’ll fight both [DeGale and Jack]. I thought it was a very close fight. I showed I’m still on top,” said DeGale.

Bute was a good sport by not losing control like we saw with Mayweather and Jack. Bute deserved the win because he clearly won the last seven rounds of the fight.