Badou Jack contemplates career after Mikaelian loss: 'Father Time might be coming'
Badou Jack was demoralized and despondent following his unanimous decision defeat in a rematch against Noel Mikaelian on Saturday.
The 42-year-old Jack entered the fight as the WBC cruiserweight champion and the second-oldest titleholder in the sport, and he left the foul-filled clash contemplating what’s left of his career.
"Father time might be coming,” Jack said during his post-fight press conference. “Maybe [this is it for me]. Maybe not. Maybe I'll do some exhibitions. Maybe I'll come back. Maybe against Jake Paul. Show me the money. Maybe I'll fight Mikaelian again. Who knows? We'll see what's next. I don’t really have anything left to prove. I love boxing. I love to fight. I’ve accomplished everything.”
Jack beat Mikaelian by majority decision in May. It was his first fight in 25 months at the time. The decision was a disputed one, and the WBC ordered a rematch, much to the chagrin of Jack. But with lucrative title unification fights looming, Jack embraced the jaunt.
“This was not my best outing, but there are no excuses,” said Jack. “He was the better man tonight, dirty or not. I felt great before the fight. I thought I had a good camp, even better than my last one, but I guess he had a good camp, too.”
The former three-division titleholder Jack (29-4-3, 17 KOs) got off to a decent start in the first half of the fight, but Mikaelian (28-3, 12 KOs) swept the final five rounds on the scorecards to walk away with the win via scores of 116-110, 116-110, and 115-111.
Both fighters were deducted a point for rabbit punches, and the fight nearly got out of hand at the end of the eighth as they kept swinging away at each other. The sequence prompted commission officials and fighter corners to step in and break up the action.
"He hit me with a lot of rabbit punches and headbutts,” said Jack. “It's a fight. Who cares? Dirty or not, he was the better man tonight. He was winning the fight toward the end. No excuses. … But the headbutts messed me up and slowed me down a little bit. It took me out of my game a little bit. It threw me off.”
After meeting with the media, Jack went to the hospital to get an MRI, which revealed he had a fractured cheekbone.
If Saturday night’s fight was indeed the last for Jack as a professional, the Gambian-Swede and 2008 Olympian retires having won titles at super middleweight, light heavyweight, and cruiserweight in a 16-year career that featured fights against some of the best contemporaries of his era.
