Adonis Stevenson managed to retain his WBC World light heavyweight belt against Badou Jack this past weekend in Toronto. The proven challenger from Sweden put up a tough fight and many thought Jack had done more than enough to sway the judges on his side but that was not the case at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.
After twelve rounds judge Jesse Reyes had it 115-113 in favour of Jack but judges Guido Cavalleri and Eric Marlinski both scored it 114-114 thus ensuring Stevenson keeping his belt via majority draw decision.
Floyd Mayweather, who promotes Jack, believes the Canadian managed to steal rounds by tricking judges with numerous last minute flurries and combinations.
“He gave the first three rounds away. I’m just speaking honest. One thing with me, I have to be honest with these fighters today. He gave the first three rounds away. But then, after that, picked up the pace. Combinations, right hands, left hooks, body shots. And then, the 11th round – even though Adonis Stevenson did win, they gave him the 11th round. But he landed a good body shot towards the end, I think the last 30 seconds of the 10th round. Then the 11th round, he came out strong for one minute,” said Mayweather at the post-fight press conference.
“So a lot of time, what we do as judges, we have to look at all three minutes of the round. Sometimes we just look at 30 seconds of the round, whereas that’s I’m trying to say, a lot of times we’re not doing our homework, we’re slacking. Even like the writers and the spectators, we only remember the last 30 seconds or the last 20 seconds. Well, remembering the last 30 seconds, what about two minutes and 30 seconds, before the last 30 seconds?” pondered Floyd.
Mayweather then explained how Sugar Ray Leonard used the same tactics in order to impress the judges before the bell rung.
“Like I said before, with the judges, a lot of times what we have to start watching is the whole round,” Mayweather said. “Sometimes a guy can come on. ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard was one of the masters of doing that. In the last 30 seconds, he’d throw a flurry and steal a round. It was a smart move, though. What we have to stop watching is what we tend to watch. It’s just when a guy do something good in a round, instead of watching the whole round.”
Both Stevenson and Jack agreed to a rematch after the fight.
“Badou is a two-time world champion and a good fighter. I will give him a rematch,” said Stevenson.
Jack accepted immediately and invited ‘Superman’ to Mayweather territory.
“I can’t do anything about it. Let’s do a rematch, let’s do it in Las Vegas – I came to his backyard.”