Jack “The Ripped” Versus James DeGale

There is no way James DeGale earned a draw against Badou Jack on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Showtime bout was supposed to annex the RING, WBC and IBF titles to determine “The Man” at 168. Instead, all we got was a bitter draw from the eyes of Mayweather Promotion’s main draw: Floyd Mayweather.

“This is the second time Badou’s been robbed. I may not come back to New York after this. Something isn’t right,” dropped Money.

“Are they (the judges) being paid under the table? I just want to be treated fair. This is happening because of my flamboyance.”

Its a dual edged sword because 10,128 fans were in attendance, in part, because of Floyd’s flamboyant ways.

Interestingly, Mayweather is an advocate of only trainers with combat experience working corners. While some may debate the merits of that, perhaps it is time for some changes to occur in the area of judging fights.

A ringside commentating team will often consist of at least one former world champion who “judges” the contest for viewers and listeners, so why aren’t actual fighters (or former fighters) officially judging their peers on the scorecards?

Even if a fighter didn’t like the resulting score– he can probably live with the opinion coming from someone who understands what’s being done (or not being done) in the ring.

DeGale, who sort of looks like a wild and aggressive Praying Mantis in the squared circle, was basically beaten up over the last eight rounds of the fight. “Chunky” really did look like he was in a dark alley with the notorious killer Jack “The Ripper”.

Badou got off to a very slow start. In fact, so slow I turned to other members of the press suggesting Jack was about to get KTFO. But he turned shit around. Soon after, DeGale lost a tooth, his hearing, his heart and actual mind over the course of this fight. How the f*** did he draw? I’ve seen worse scores, but I had it 115-112 Jack.

I spoke to respected referee Eddie Cotton last night about this contest, and he had a major problem with referee Arthur Mercante Jr., who was caught with an accidental (but deserved) wicked left hook from Jack. A non-union official on hiatus, if warmed up and active Mercante is a fine referee but he had no business working Jack/DeGale. He made several mistakes throughout the contest and was slow to react when needed.

Jack out-punched, out-worked and out-everything’d DeGale. Bottom line. A rematch would seem unlikely given Jack’s desire to face Adonis “Superman” Stevenson (at the end of June according to Floyd) for the WBC light heavyweight title.

DeGale, if he stays under promoter Eddie Hearn, would almost certainly defend against Callum Smith next (and lose).

Stay tuned.