DeGale out-points Medina to retain IBF super middleweight title

In Saturday’s co-main event, DeGale won a hard-fought unanimous decision over Mexican challenger Rogelio Medina.

Following his second defence of the belt, former Olympic champion DeGale said: “I want Badou Jack“.

Two judges scored the fight 114-114, while the third judge scored it wide for Jack 117-111, a score that seemed more in line with reality.

James DeGale defeated Rogelio Medina in Washington DC last night to keep hold of his IBF super-middleweight title.

DeGale was supremely accurate, landing 51 percent of his power punches compared to just 23 for Medina, including a staggering 66 percent of his power punches. It was a great disparity from the 117-111 score by judge Stephen Rados. Per the Showtime broadcast, Jack landed 103 body shots after 12 rounds, compared to Bute’s 27. He also dictated some rounds with his jab, and was able to keep Bute (32-3-1, 25 KO) from establishing a rhythm on offense, constantly forcing the Romanian-Canadian veteran to push the reset button.

DeGale kept firing in the next round too, connecting with one particularly authoritative upper cut that snapped back Medina’s head. I can’t see him ever giving Medina a rematch.

“Believe me, it was very close fight”, the 36-year-old Bute insisted. I feel I won the fight.

“It was a close fight, but Jack won it”, he said. “I want the unification fight in front of my home people”.

The champ wound up doing his most decisive work in the early and middle rounds, but Bute came storming back to make the proceedings competitive down the stretch, enough so that the judges scored the result a majority draw.

“He’s a very tough fighter, he has obviously got a lot stronger and better over the a year ago and a half”, DeGale said. It was text book, curling his body downward, Jack’s left tagged Bute right on the jaw.

Medina never stopped throwing punches, and DeGale had some swelling on his right cheek from taking heavy shots, especially in the 11th round, which was Medina’s best of the fight. “It’s all about being fair, and we all know Badou Jack won the fight by unanimous decision”, said Floyd Mayweather, who sat ringside and was the promoter for the fight. “I may have given away a couple of rounds, maybe the last one or two rounds or so, but I won the fight clearly”. “He was head butting and I got a little frustrating, so that’s why I spit at him”, Medina said. “The fans think I won, I definitely think that I won”.

“I’m always learning in the gym – my inside work, my defence, my concentration”.