When Andre Ward moved up to the light heavyweight division in early 2016, a talented division became ripe for the taking.
And now, two fighters have emerged as potential heirs to Ward’s throne as the king of the super middleweight division. They will settle their differences on Saturday, January 14th, at the Barclays center in Brooklyn. IBF champion James DeGale, of England, and WBC champion Badou Jack, from Sweden but now fighting out of Las Vegas, are those two fighters.
These two became connected in the spring of 2015, when each of them defeated one of the Dirrell brothers, Andre and Anthony, to claim their respective world titles. DeGale (23-1, 14 KO’s) defeated Andre Dirrell (25-2, 16 KO’s) in Boston last year, dropping him twice in the second round en route to a unanimous decision victory, claiming a vacant world title. Jack (20-1-2, 12 KO’s) out-pointed the younger Anthony Dirrell (29-1-1, 23 KO’s) in Chicago to take his belt.
Since winning their belts, they have now faced mutual opponents to further set up a unification bout. DeGale, 30, has defended his crown twice. The Brit has out-pointed former Jack knockout victim Rogelio Medina (36-7, 30 KO’s), in April, and former world title-holder Lucian Bute (32-3-1, 25 KO’s) in November 2015.
Jack, 33, has also made two defenses of his own. He out-pointed George Groves (25-3, 18 KO’s), the only man to defeat DeGale, on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather’s fight against Andre Berto in September 2015. Mayweather is also Jack’s promoter, giving him a big push from the biggest name in the sport. Jack’s second defense was a controversial majority draw against Bute, in a fight that many thought that Jack won easily.
Regardless, they have both cleared their paths to the division’s number one spot. But who will come away with the win?
This is a very interesting style matchup, both fighters have visible flaws but the other man’s strengths would not necessarily expose those flaws. Jack was brutally knocked out in his only career loss to Derek Edwards and has also shown that he can be hurt. But DeGale is not a huge puncher, either. Although he could be a hard enough puncher to badly hurt Jack.
DeGale, a southpaw, is also a very slick fighter that fights in an unorthodox way. He is a very good counter puncher that throws from odd angles. But he has shown a shaky gas tank in his last three fights. Each of his last three wins against DeGale, Bute, and Medina were close fights that saw DeGale fade down the stretch. His pure skill is off the charts, as he won a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but Jack could give him serious problems.
If Badou Jack can hang with James DeGale and box with him in the first six rounds, then he could apply pressure in the second half of the fight to overwhelm DeGale, who limits his punch output when pressured. This will be a war of attrition. If DeGale’s conditioning has improved, then it will be very difficult for Jack to win this fight. But the Swede is no slouch, himself. The WBC champion has had no problems in the late rounds of fights and throws a very good straight right hand, the key punch in connecting on a southpaw fighter from the orthodox stance.
This is a 50/50 fight at the highest level of the sport, and the winner will have big things awaiting him. Perhaps another unification fight with WBO titleholder Gilberto Ramirez (34-0, 24 KO’s)? DeGale has even mentioned a super fight with middleweight king Gennady Golovkin aka GGG (36-0, 33 KO’s) if he comes out on top. But they must get through each other first, and the fighter who makes the final big adjustment will be the one to come out on top.
There are not many certainties when one thinks about this fight. But one certainty is that this will be a terrific scrap on Showtime Championship Boxing.
