DeGale and Jack go to war at Barclays

Brooklyn, NY --- After a six-month drought, boxing finally returned to ‘Gotham City’

Considering that the Barclay Center played host to the last contest in New York, between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz, it’s only fitting that the boxing calendar resume in the place where we last left off.

Since the legalization of mixed martial arts in New York, boxing promoters are now required to provide medical coverage worth at least one million dollars to cover all head injuries. With that being said, boxing enthusiasts can say farewell to local club shows in the ‘Big Apple’. In this scenario, it took the backing of major television network such as Showtime, along with someone with the deep pockets of say a Floyd Mayweather to cover the insurance premium. And 18 million dollars later, all was taken care of.

In the main event, super middleweights Badou Jack and James DeGale fought to a majority draw in their WBC/IBF unification bout. The scorecards read 114-112 for DeGale, which was overruled by scores of 113-113 twice. In the contest both Jack and DeGale traded knockdowns. A crowd of 10,128 witnessed both men hold on to their titles. The general ringside consensus was that Jack slightly edged out his southpaw counterpart from the U.K. by a couple of points. For Jack this was his second consecutive draw, with the other coming against Lucian Bute. It was a fight in which most experts agreed that Jack deserved the nod.

"He was doing a lot of running," Jack said, whose ledger now reads as 20-1-3, (12). "He was throwing a lot of shit at my guard. I thought I won the fight. I finished stronger. His knockdown was a flash knockdown. I won the fight."

Of course DeGale saw it the other way. He felt that he should have gotten the victory.

"It was sensational," said Lou DiBella, the co-promoter of the card. "Those were two men, two real friggin’ men. That’s what it’s supposed to be. DeGale’s balls in the last round is a monument to who he is. I thought Jack was down, and he needed to climb back into the fight, and he did. Lot of close rounds.

Great night for boxing."

It was just that close, had DeGale managed to conclude the evening on his feet, he would have won a unanimous decision. To his credit he achieved early success by dropping Jack in the first.

In the fifth round referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. was accidentally hit in the face with a Jack left hand, while in the process of separating Jack and DeGale. Not to worry, Mercante Jr. was fine. In the eighth round Jack knocked DeGale’s tooth out. By the championship rounds, DeGale’s face was a disaster. He was bleeding from his eye and mouth.