Light-heavyweight contender and former WBC super-middleweight champion Badou Jack continues his trend of seeking out the most formidable challenges for his career, when he faces undefeated counterpart Marcus Browne for the WBC ‘silver’ championship at the MGM Grand.
The winner will find themselves in prime position to challenge Ukrainian Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who captured the title with a devastating stoppage in the penultimate round over Adonis Stevenson, who still remains hospitalised following his defeat.
Although Browne – like Stevenson – has garnered a reputation as a devastating puncher from the southpaw stance with his second-round demolition of Seanie Monaghan, Jack is the vastly more experienced operator and is accordingly favoured by bookmakers to emerge victorious when the two meet on Saturday night.
Staten Island native Browne was mandatory challenger for Artur Beterbiev’s IBF championship, before signing a deal to challenge then-WBO champion and former unified king Sergey Kovalev at Madison Square Garden in June 2018. However, his championship hopes were thwarted at the time, when the New Yorker became embroiled in various legal troubles in April.
A shaky showing against Lenin Castillo in his most recent outing and a closely-contested controversial win against Radivoje Kalajdzic three years ago mean that it is generally believed that Browne will most likely have to produce the performance of his career to topple the Swede, who himself fought Adonis Stevenson to a majority draw in May – displaying impressive resilience, skills, and spiteful body work in the process.
On the other hand, it is reasonable to imagine that the number of gruelling scraps – particularly his last one – in his career have taken their toll on the ‘Ripper’, and that Browne, with his relative size, strength, and freshness, may very well be sufficiently equipped to spring a surprise and inflict Jack with the second defeat of his career in typically destructive style.
Article by: Navi Singh