Badou Jack was left with a draw tonight in Toronto and only has himself to blame in my view. He dominated most of the second half of the fight and did the majority of the damage overall, but he didn’t throw enough in the first half of the fight to accumulate the points needed to win. Adonis Stevenson also showed just enough power and heart late to hold off defeat as well.
Badou Jack (22-1-3, 13 KOs) did next to nothing in the first round. Adonis Stevenson (29-1-1, 24 KOs) didn’t really land much either, but at least he tried to work over the first three minutes. Again, the Swedish challenger didn’t throw punches in the second round either. Stevenson was able to hold him at range and only needed to land a few shots of his own to win the round. Thankfully if only for the fight’s watchability, Jack showed up to the third round and moved his hands well. He was back to standing and waiting by the end of the round’s first minute though. Stevenson had won it back by its end.
He didn’t win the fourth round. Badou worked for something closer to three minutes in round four and clearly took the round on his work from range. Strangely effectively, Adonis Stevenson decided to respond by going inside in the fifth. That isn’t his territory generally, but he worked it here again by being busier. It did make a poor fight aesthetically even worse with tons of clinches though as much as it worked for the Canadian defending titleholder. Adonis turned the volume way up in the sixth, especially early. He threw a lot of effective shots and had an excellent round while Badou Jack continued to do very little in there.
I had Adonis Stevenson up five rounds to one at the halfway point following a very strange and passive early performance from the usually excellent Badou Jack.
Finally Badou Jack came alive in the seventh and he did it in a big way. He landed a series of clean right hands as Stevenson began to slow down. I thought the first he landed briefly stunned and froze the titleholder. Jack wasn’t as dynamic in the eighth, but he still landed the cleaner shots while a fatigued Stevenson couldn’t get much going. Despite still having a comfortable lead, things suddenly looked pretty terrible for Adonis Stevenson. His nose was busted and he appeared to suddenly have nothing left going into the ninth. In that round Badou landed some huge shots late and looked to have momentarily wobbled Adonis in a fight that was suddenly becoming very one sided.
Despite falling apart to fatigue, Badou Jack, and age, the 40 year old titleholder held a one round lead going into the tenth round thanks to Jack not having done much at all in the fight’s first half. He pulled a minor miracle out of his hat on a sequence of body shots to take much needed late round in the tenth. The Showtime crew only paid attention to the one shot at the end of the round, but it was happening for a full minute or so before they clued in. This was a super important round because it secured the 40 year old a draw at worst on my card if he could stay on his feet in the last two rounds.
Stevenson came out with the heart of a champion in the eleventh looking to capitalize on his sudden advantage. He worked viciously and mercilessly for the first ninety seconds, ripping Badou nonstop. At one moment I thought Jack was about to take a knee, but instead he threw a nice counter that landed. By the end of the round Adonis was exhausted and the Swedish contender back in control, but it wasn’t enough to take the round in my view. The defending titleholder only had about thirty seconds of energy to give in the twelfth before he went into clinch mode though and Badou Jack took it by landing more overall.
Thanks to his unexpected tenth and eleventh round rally when it looked like he was on the verge of being stopped, I score the fight 115-113 for Adonis Stevenson. He could barely stay on his feet at the end and definitely took the worse punishment overall, but that isn’t how fights are scored for better or worse. Badou Jack did not work in the first half of the fight overall and just handed rounds away. Even though he dominated the rounds he won in a way that Stevenson didn’t except partly in two rounds late, he didn’t accumulate enough points to win the decision. As Steve Farhood mentioned in the broadcast, this is a weakness in the 10 point must system that we use to score fights for sure. Yet, it also isn’t a surprise to Badou Jack how the fight is going to be scored. He knows the risk of not fighting early and tonight he paid it.
Official scores came back 115-113 Jack and 114-114 twice for a draw. Those are completely fine cards. This is the story of Badou Jack’s career. Absurdly, this was the fifth draw scorecard he has heard read. One was overturned and there are only four on his record, but he still needs to reflect on why this is happening. You can’t give five rounds away in a fight and complain about scoring at the end.
In Jim Gray’s post-fight interviews both men expressed a belief that they had won. Adonis Stevenson did say he’d be open to a rematch, but we’ll see given his age and history.
