By Scott Gilfoid: Last night we saw two controversial outcomes with WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) having to settle for a questionable (some would say gift) 12 round draw against former IBF 168lb champion Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs) in Showtime’s mini-tournament at the DC Armory in Washington, DC.
The fights were both shown on Showtime Championship Boxing last night in the U.S, and you have to wonder what all the fans were thinking in seeing Bute and Jack look less than dazzling. To me, they booth showed how horrible the current champions are in the super middleweight division.
It makes you wish talents like Andre Ward were still around fighting in the 168lb divsion so that mediocre fighters like DeGale and Jack, who look like fringe contenders than champions, wouldn’t be lowering Ward’s standards that he had set as a dominating champion.
Jack fought well enough to deserve a loss. I thought Bute was the better fighter and had him winning eight rounds to four. The judges scored it 117-111 for Jack, and 114-114 and 114-114. Jack needed a win – or a draw – to let him keep his WBC title so that he could move forward for a nice payday fight against IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs) for later this year in the finals of Showtime’s 168lb mini-tournament involving two of the five champions in the division.
That’s why it’s call a mini-tournament. The other three champions in super middleweight division aren’t taking part in the tourney. I don’t know why they’re calling it a tourney. It’s just a simple unification fight.
I feel sorry for Showtime because the outcomes of last night’s fight may kill interest in their mini-tournament later this year. This has to be the worst possible thing to happen for them. It’s one thing for one of the fighters last night to have a controversial outcome in their fights, but both of them? It’s so, so sad.
DeGale should have lost and so should have Badou Jack in my opinion. Heck, even if you want to say they deserved victories, how can you ignore how dreadful they booth looked. I mean, I thought DeGale and Jack looked very bad. I was more impressed with the blue-collar approach from their opponents Medina and Bute. The thing is, I thought Medina and Bute were both royally robbed last night.
DeGale fought on the same card and looked equally dreadful in winning a controversial 12 round decision over replacement opponent Rogelio Medina (36-7, 30 KOs) by the scores of 115-113, 117-111 and 117-111. I had Medina winning 115-113. DeGale’s face was reddened and badly lumped up by the end of the fight from Medina’s hard shots.
I couldn’t give the win to DeGale because he was too lazy in there last night. He let Medina outwork him in every round, and most of the punches DeGale landed were slapping shots where he would throw punches from weird angles to clown around. It was all showboating and clowning stuff.
The horrible performances from DeGale and Badou Jack now put them both in a position where their fight in September or October will look like a farce between underserving fighters. They were the favorites going into last night’s fight and they both avoided losing their fights by what I saw as questionable decisions.
Now the two of them can have their money fight later this year with it being followed by the stink of controversy. DeGale and Jack should not be fighting each other in my view. They should be going back and giving rematches to their opponents from last night so that they can clear up the controversy and stink that follows them.
Yeah, the DeGale vs. Badou fight will bring in good money for them, their teams and for boxing, but what good is it with the way they are coming into the fights off fights where they should have lost? Last night’s fights reminded me a lot of the controversial decision Oscar De La Hoya won over Felix Sturm in June 2004.
At the time, De La Hoya needed a win to set himself up for a big money payday fight against IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins. Sturm appeared to beat De La Hoya by outworking him, like we saw last night with Medina and Bute outworking DeGale and Jack, but instead of Sturm getting the win, De La Hoya was given a 12 round decision by the scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113.
De La Hoya then took his controversial win and went on to face Hopkins later in the year in September 2004 and got a big payday in losing by a ninth round knockout. What I saw last night looked like the same thing with DeGale and Badou getting controversial decisions over opponents that outworked them. They will now be fighting in a big money fight in September at a still to be determined venue.
My guess is the DeGale-Jack fight will take place in the UK where fans will care about the fight. I don’t think they’re going to bring in more than 5,000 fans if they stage the fight in the U.S. I cannot see a lot of fans being interested in that fight because neither of these guys are stars in the U.S.
Last night’s performances were definitely not Golovkin-esque by DeGale and Jack. If Golovkin is considered a 10 on the crowd-pleasing scale with his typical performances, what we saw from DeGale and Jack last night were like a 3 at best. I think giving them a 3 on a 10 scale would be far too kind. 2 would be more like it. They both were awful last night.
Badou was missing shots all night long, and fought as if he had his eyes closed. He was also not throwing many punches and just waiting for the perfect moment to throw shots. I thought Badou looked like he was feeling the negative effects from having gained back 15 pounds after making weight.
Badou reportedly rehydrated 15 pounds and came into the ring last night in the 180s. Like many fighters that rehydrate a ton of weight, Badou was effective in the first five rounds. However, after the 5th, Badou’s work rate went down and he found himself being outworked by Bute in every round. I could not give Badou one round in the last seven rounds of the contest. I also had him losing a couple of early rounds in the five. In other words, I have Bute winning nine rounds to three.
“It’s not Bute’s fault, it’s the judges. People saw I won the fight,” said Jack after the fight. “Ask Bute as well, he knows what time it is,” said Jack. “His punches weren’t hurting me. I feel I won the fight. Maybe I lost the last round. He’s a great guy and a great champion, but I know I won the fight.”
It does not matter whether Bute’s punches were hurting Jack or not. This is boxing. If you land more shots than your opponent does and if you outwork them when they get lazy or tired, which is clearly what we saw last night from Badou in the second half of the fight, then you do not win. That is how it is. Boxing is a sport and if you get lazy and tired, you do not win. Sorry, Badou.
Next time make sure you come to the fight in shape and remember to work hard in every round by letting your hands go instead of getting lazy and thinking the judges are going to give you rounds with you landing a small handful of punches. I mean, when a guy like Bute is out-landing and out-punching you by a wide margin in each round, you’re not going to win. Sorry, but that’s just how it is. You do not win fights when don’t throw shots, you miss punches 24/7, and you let your opponent outwork you.