Jack-Bute ends in draw; DeGale defeats Medina

By Rob Smith - 04/30/2016 - Comments

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME) WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) came up empty on Saturday night in having to settle for a 12 round draw against the hard working former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (32-3-1, 25 KOs) at the DC Armory in Washington, DC. The scores were 117-111, 114-114 and 114-114.

With the fight being scored a draw, Jack retains his WBC title. He said he won’t be giving Bute a rematch because he believes he won. Jack said he’ll be facing IBF champion James DeGale next in a unification fight. DeGale fought on the undercard and was very fortunate to get a victory over Rogelio Medina. Jack and DeGale both looked horrible tonight. Even if you want to say that Jack deserved the victory tonight, it was still bad seeing him get dominated in the entire second half of the fight. Bute didn’t just win some rounds. He was winning round after round in the second half of the fight. Bute had Jack completely figured out by that point in the fight and he controlled the championship rounds.

Jack let himself get outworked in the last seven rounds of the fight. He completely fell apart after the fifth round and appeared to lose every round from that point on. If there’s anyone who was robbed in the fight, it was Bute, because he outworked him.

In an equally bad performance from the favorite IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs), he won an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision over challenger Rogelio Medina (36-7, 30 KOs) in the co-feature bout. The judges scored the fight 115-113, 117-111 and 117-111. The 115-113 score was fair, but the other two were inaccurate. DeGale appeared to barely win the fight. I scored it a draw because I had Medina outworking Medina in six of the rounds. Those were rounds in which DeGale spent most of the time with his back against the ropes taking shots. When he wasn’t against the ropes, he was wasting time moving around the ring trying not to get hit. DeGale threw a lot of uppercuts from long range, and this led to Medina hitting him with left hooks in the later rounds when he was able to time DeGale when he throwing his uppercuts.

DeGale and Badou Jack will be fighting each other later this year in Showtime’s mini-tournament. However, with the way the two fighters fought tonight, I think their fight will be somewhat of a joke. DeGale has unfinished business with Medina and Badou Jack unfinished business with Bute.