Last night, the battle for super middleweight supremacy was left unanswered in the minds of the judges. Badou Jack and James DeGale, the top two ranked super middleweights in the world, met in a unification bout to determine the world’s best 168-pound fighter.
Yet after two knockdowns and 12 intense, back-and-forth rounds, the distinction as the world’s best super middleweight is still up in the air.
WBC champion and Mayweather Promotions fighter Badou Jack (20-1-3, 12 KOs) and IBF champion James DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KOs) fought to a 12-round majority draw in the main event at the Barclays Center. The bout was scored 114-112 (DeGale) and 113-113 twice, however the fans won with a barnburner of a fight.
DeGale, making the third defense of his IBF belt, set the tone by giving Jack a seat with a jab with 30 seconds left in the first round. But it was back and forth from there in a highly skilled, closely contested battle between the consensus best in the weight class and in the eighth unification bout in division history.
However, Jack, was more effective on the inside and more active, throwing 745 total punches vs. DeGale’s 617. The fight was Jacks third title defense
The pivotal moment in the fight occurred when Jack floored DeGale for the first time in his career with a left-right combo punch midway through the 12th and final round. Without the 10-8 round, DeGale would have won a unanimous decision.
Earlier in the evening, undefeated 130-pound Floyd Mayweather protg and Baltimore native, Gervonta Davis (17-0, 16 KOs) dethroned defending IBF Junior Lightweight World Champion Jose Pedraza (22-1, 12 KOs) with an impressive seventh round TKO (2:36).
On Friday, super welterweight world champion Erislandy Lara (24-2-2, 14 KOs) continued his reign as one of the top 154-pounders in the world and delivered a sensational knockout of former world champion Yuri Foreman (34-3, 10 KOs).
In front of a huge Cuban audience in Miami, Lara needed just a single left uppercut to drop and stop Foreman at 1:47 of round four. Foreman was also down in round three from a questionable knockdown that could have been ruled a slip.
