The first major boxing event of 2017 is in the books and it wound up containing two early candidates for fight of the year, as crazy as that sounds. Showtime presented a stellar night of action from inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and in the main event, super middleweight champions Badou Jack and James DeGale fought tooth and nail for 12 grueling rounds, electrifying the boxing world in the process.
As the battle wore on, Jack and DeGale traded rounds like they exchanged blows, but even though the Las Vegas resident was landing the harder, more telling blows, DeGale was outworking him down the stretch with busier flurries. Going into the championship rounds, the fight’s outcome was hanging in the balance and both 168-pounders fought like desperate champions trailing on the cards.
Finally, with him literally behind going into the final frame, Jack leveled DeGale with a perfect counter right uppercut. DeGale stumbled down and onto his back and when he struggled up to his feet, his right cheek was a bloody mess and he was badly rocked. Jack, sensing a dramatic come-from-behind knockout, rushed in and tried to finish him off, but the Brit was too tough to fold and hung on to see the final bell.
Finally, with the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Hall of Fame ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. read the tabulated scores, revealing a majority draw. One judge favored DeGale 114-112, as did Sherdog.com, but that tally was offset by the two others who turned in scores of 113-113. As expected, both men felt they had won and social media exploded with debate as to what the final outcome should have been.
With the draw, Jack (20-1-3, 12 KOs) retained his WBC super middleweight crown while DeGale, now 23-1-1 with 14 KOs, hung onto his IBF belt. Both men were eager for a rematch, but Jack was adamant that if they did, it would have to be at light heavyweight.
In the opening bout of the telecast, young stud Gervonta Davis was a man possessed against former Olympian and current IBF super featherweight champion Jose Pedraza. The Baltimore native came out aggressively against Pedraza and tore into the champ’s head and body from the opening bell, never allowing the Puerto Rican to get into a rhythm. Pedraza stood toe-to-toe with the younger lion, though, which made for a terrific back-and-forth affair.
But when Pedraza (22-1, 12 KOs) snuck back into the fight in the fifth by unloading a dizzying flurry of punches downstairs and up, Davis rallied back in the sixth with his relentless pressure. But early in the seventh, a wicked shot to the body hurt “Sniper” and from there, Davis closed out the show. Pedraza ducked away in an attempt to recover, but Davis unfurled an array of power shots to the head. Pedraza backed toward the corner, but he was drilled by a missile of a right hook to the jaw. The punched felled him into the ropes and though Pedraza was able to get up at the count of nine, referee Ricky Gonzalez had seen enough and waived it off.
The official time of the stoppage came at 2:36 of the seventh, allowing Davis (17-0, 16 KOs) to wrest the 130-pound title away from Pedraza. The crowning also made Davis, 22, the youngest current world champion in all of boxing.