BoxRec

I analyzed the whole fight while watching and IMO the draw was fair enough because they connected almost the same quantity of punches, had both good ring generalship, balanced ring dominance in each round each one, aggressiveness, dodge and defence. Such a great fight.

Probably will be a nominee in the category "best fight of the year" (and boxing year had just started, it's nice to know cause it is a sign that there are many good fights to come)

My personal scorecard was:

Round 1 - DeGale
Round 2 - DeGale
Round 3 - Jack
Round 4 - Jack
Round 5 - DeGale
Round 6 - Jack
Round 7 - DeGale
Round 8 - Jack
Round 9 - Jack
Round 10 - DeGale
Round 11 - DeGale
Round 12 - Jack

113-113 = DRAW

*For those who call robbery, please inform yourselves about it in boxing, there is a big difference between robbery and close fight.

Below there are the offical judges scorecards as well as the punchstats from each boxer from compubox.

Punchstats - https://i.imgsafe.org/b6a8dce210.jpg

Official Scorecards - https://i.imgsafe.org/b6acf0c705.jpg

Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

I disagree about DeGale isn't being elite, his gold medal is a bit of a proof that he is very capable and very skillful.

You have to weight that this fight was each other's toughest opponent they ever faced, so you can expect some flaws during the fight from each other, can't be perfect. Jack didn't encounter himself in battle until the 5th round, his dramatic change in style and aggressiveness forced the battle to a more balanced one as well as it forced DeGale to retreat a bit.

I thought it was a fair decision. I scored it 114-112 for DeGale. He was more active, although I know that a lot of his punches were blocked. I felt that Jack could have thrown more. The first and the twelfth rounds cancelled each other out because each scored a knockdown. My score was the same as the first judge's score announced.

1 DeGale 10-8
2 DeGale 10-9
3 Jack 10-9
4 DeGale 10-9
5 Jack 10-9
6 Jack 10-9
7 DeGale 10-9
8 Jack 10-9
9 DeGale 10-9
10 DeGale 10-9
11 DeGale 10-9
12 Jack 10-8

GREAT DECISION. I was very pleased with it because a lot of those rounds were impossible to score...just impossible. Sometimes so many close rounds leads to some lopsided/confusing decisions but those judges nailed it. If it were a street fight, i'd say Jack won handedly. But it's not and when you divide those rounds up, such a close fight.

I've never seen a fight where all three guys in the ring got knocked down and finished the fight. That has to be some sort of record.

It's too bad that Showtime let their love for Floyd Mayweather Jr mar one of the best boxing cards in years. From the interviews, to the shots of him in between rounds pacing back and forth with his tablecloth colored shirt on. I'm done with this guy. Get him off my tv.

Jack landed more and also landed the more telling blows. He should have gotten the nod. Good fight.

Both these guys are elite. regardless who landed the heavier shots, the fight is scored round by round. I dont think I scored exactly the same as the first poster however I came to the same conclusion 113 -113. I could easily see how Jack would get a 114 - 112 though. Thought Floyd was a bit over the top with his robbery talks at the end of the bout!! Draw is fair outcome. would love to see it again.

imaioral wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

I disagree about DeGale isn't being elite, his gold medal is a bit of a proof that he is very capable and very skillful.

If this were the case then all Olympic gold medalists would be elite pros. This is demonstrably untrue.

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

Degale isn't elite?

Impractical Poster wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

Degale isn't elite?

Jack and DeGale are...

amwsnw wrote:

Impractical Poster wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

Degale isn't elite?

Jack and DeGale are...

No doubt.

Impractical Poster wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

Degale isn't elite?

He has elite level skills, but mentally, no, no he's not imo. He is too inconsistent through a fight to be elite. You don't see the likes of Ward,Gonzalez, Golovkin, Inoue, turning off for 3 or 4 rounds every fight. Elite fighters stay switched on for 12 rounds of every fight and Degale doesn't do that.

Amazingly talented, but something is missing and we see it repeatedly, not just a one off

Boxing Prospect wrote:

Impractical Poster wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

Degale isn't elite?

He has elite level skills, but mentally, no, no he's not imo. He is too inconsistent through a fight to be elite. You don't see the likes of Ward,Gonzalez, Golovkin, Inoue, turning off for 3 or 4 rounds every fight. Elite fighters stay switched on for 12 rounds of every fight and Degale doesn't do that.

Amazingly talented, but something is missing and we see it repeatedly, not just a one off

Even though I had him losing last night, I thought he showed an elite level mentality and heart to go along with his skills. But, Jack really impressed and surprised me as I thought Degale would win my a comfortable margin.

Jack is one of the most technically sound fighters in the game. I didn't score it, but the draw seemed fair.degale is tough as fornicate. Knocked out teeth, busted ear drum, down and hurt, winging to the final bell. If that isn't elite, fornicate elite.

amwsnw wrote:Both these guys are elite. regardless who landed the heavier shots, the fight is scored round by round. I dont think I scored exactly the same as the first poster however I came to the same conclusion 113 -113. I could easily see how Jack would get a 114 - 112 though. Thought Floyd was a bit over the top with his robbery talks at the end of the bout!! Draw is fair outcome. would love to see it again.

Neither of them are elite. They are just very good
Elite was ward froch and maybe Kessler.

gp. wrote:

imaioral wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Close fight that I felt Jack won (114-112), no problem with the draw. The fight, again, showed why Degale isn't elite despite his incredible skills. The guy can't fight for 12 rounds, takes too many naps and doesn't push his advantage. Jack was big, strong and powerful but Degale never pressed the issue early when he his legs.

I disagree about DeGale isn't being elite, his gold medal is a bit of a proof that he is very capable and very skillful.

If this were the case then all Olympic gold medalists would be elite pros. This is demonstrably untrue.

Buddy did you read part of the sentence "bit of a proof"? I didn't want to generalize, otherwise I would say "a proof" I wanted to mean that the most of gold medallists are indeed much better technical boxers than most boxers, cause of hard path, process and training to get there. Thus favoring a bit their path to achieve a belt. Not only them, I think Olympic boxers in general have much more polished techniques when starting in professional.

One other rich information. As far as I read, in general 30% or less of all Olympic medalists turn pro. In total were 947 x 30% = 284. The medallists world champions were 181 (source 1), so 63.73%. In resume, yes Olympic medalists are much more elite and pro (if we can call it) and have much more chance to become world champions... How can be untrue? It's not totally untrue it is more to true than untrue.

1 - Medallists champions - http://www.sports-reference.com/olympic ... .cgi?id=17
(Website missing world champions: Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Vasyl Lomachenko).

Some gold medallists champions - http://www.newsday.com/sports/olympics/ ... 1.12045924

Best regards'

114-113 Jack on my card,if anything maybe could've been a little wider, I was surprised to hear Sky say US TV had DeGale in the lead in about the 8th/9th,a lot of James's work was hitting arms and gloves

handsofstone wrote:114-113 Jack on my card,if anything maybe could've been a little wider, I was surprised to hear Sky say US TV had DeGale in the lead in about the 8th/9th,a lot of James's work was hitting arms and gloves

That is surprising if us tv had in front

One of those weird fights where one guy (Jack) seemed to land more punches and do more damage, but when you score it round-by-round using the 10-point system, a draw is totally justifiable.

cold187 wrote:

amwsnw wrote:Both these guys are elite. regardless who landed the heavier shots, the fight is scored round by round. I dont think I scored exactly the same as the first poster however I came to the same conclusion 113 -113. I could easily see how Jack would get a 114 - 112 though. Thought Floyd was a bit over the top with his robbery talks at the end of the bout!! Draw is fair outcome. would love to see it again.

Neither of them are elite. They are just very good
Elite was ward froch and maybe Kessler.

I agree. There is no elite fighter at super-middle right now.

Boxerbeetle wrote:

cold187 wrote:

amwsnw wrote:Both these guys are elite. regardless who landed the heavier shots, the fight is scored round by round. I dont think I scored exactly the same as the first poster however I came to the same conclusion 113 -113. I could easily see how Jack would get a 114 - 112 though. Thought Floyd was a bit over the top with his robbery talks at the end of the bout!! Draw is fair outcome. would love to see it again.

Neither of them are elite. They are just very good
Elite was ward froch and maybe Kessler.

I agree. There is no elite fighter at super-middle right now.

I tend to agree with this. DeGale and Jack are not great champions, I think Callum Smith beats them. I think Gilberto Ramirez beats them as well. That aside it was a great fight to watch but both took too many head shots so had poor defence. I thought pre-fight DeGale would win easily, but have had doubts about him. I scored it 114-112 to DeGale, but I did not watch all of rd 3 and scored to DeGale so 113-113 is fine. I gave JD rds 1 2 3 5 9 10 11.

Boxerbeetle wrote:

cold187 wrote:

amwsnw wrote:Both these guys are elite. regardless who landed the heavier shots, the fight is scored round by round. I dont think I scored exactly the same as the first poster however I came to the same conclusion 113 -113. I could easily see how Jack would get a 114 - 112 though. Thought Floyd was a bit over the top with his robbery talks at the end of the bout!! Draw is fair outcome. would love to see it again.

Neither of them are elite. They are just very good
Elite was ward froch and maybe Kessler.

I agree. There is no elite fighter at super-middle right now.

I think Zurdo could be, but tough to say as he hasn't even defended his title once yet.

cold187 wrote: Neither of them are elite. They are just very good
Elite was ward froch and maybe Kessler.

Boxerbeetle wrote: I agree. There is no elite fighter at super-middle right now.

Is being told now as well as Kessler and Froch were labeled like u guys doing when they had their 20 to 25 fights ...
Mikkel Kessler became a great to elite fighter from around his 35th fight+, Froch 25th+ and we can put Calzaghe when he won his 26th+

They are just paving their way, wait 4-6 more years to see what may happen...

Carl Froch won by TKO twice against George Groves who is No. 2 in the division according to boxrec. DeGale and Jack are not elite if that means pound for pound top ten. They are only top ten in the division and not the top two which this fight was billed as just because they each have a belt. It was a good close fight and I doubt that there will be a rematch because Mayweather feels that Jack was robbed and also Jack will probably move up to light heavyweight.

imaioral wrote:

cold187 wrote: Neither of them are elite. They are just very good
Elite was ward froch and maybe Kessler.

Boxerbeetle wrote: I agree. There is no elite fighter at super-middle right now.

Is being told now as well as Kessler and Froch were labeled like u guys doing when they had their 20 to 25 fights ...
Mikkel Kessler became a great to elite fighter from around his 35th fight+, Froch 25th+ and we can put Calzaghe when he won his 26th+

They are just paving their way, wait 4-6 more years to see what may happen...

Well yeah, they might both turn out to be elite, no one should write them off. But at the moment, they aren't elite.