Tag: Dmitry Bivol

Marcus Browne on Pascal-Jack: ‘I feel like I deserve the winner’

Marcus Browne is looking to fight the winner of the Jean Pascal-Badou Jack light heavyweight bout this Saturday in Atlanta.

Marcus Browne will have a vested interest in the outcome of the Badou Jack-Jean Pascal light heavyweight bout on the Gervonta Davis-Yuriorkis Gamboa card Saturday in Atlanta .

“Good fight,” the 29-year-old contender told Boxing Junkie. “I want the winner. I feel like I deserve the winner.”

So much so that Browne (23-1, 16 knockouts) will be ringside for the fight. Browne has a bit of history with both fighters. He dominated Jack in a career-best performance in January, winning a wide decision. He didn’t fare as well with Pascal, who knocked down the Staten Island native three times in August en route to a technical decision. The fight was stopped in the eighth round because of a cut over Browne’s brow. Repeated headbutts initiated by Pascal played a role in that, Browne said.

“(Pascal) was coming at me with his head since the second round, and the referee never warned him, never did anything,” Browne said. “It’s boxing, I don’t complain. I just want a rematch.”

Marcus Browne (left) defeated a bloodied Badou Jack last January. Brown would like to give Jack a rematch if the Swede beats Jean Pascal on Saturday. AP Photo / John Locher

Depending on what happens on Saturday night, he’d also be fine with a rematch against Jack.

“Leonard Ellerbe said [Jack] was flat that night,” Browne said. “So, I mean, if he was flat, I respect it, and I’ll give him another shot. Maybe he won’t be flat. Hell yeah, why not?”

After he takes care of business against Saturday’s winner, he wants the other titleholders in the division, Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev.

“I don’t care which champions I’m going to fight, I’m with whatever champion that wants to fight me,” Browne said. “I’m looking to get the rematch and fighting one of those titleholders.”

But will Browne, an Al Haymon-advised boxer, be able to get those fights when Bivol is aligned with Eddie Hearn/DAZN and Beterbiev is linked with Top Rank/ESPN?

“Bulls—, man. It’s boxing, man,” Browne said. “If the guys want the fights, it can happen, man. And if the fans want the fight, it can happen. And if it makes sense, it can happen. Why not? Gary Russell fought (Vasiliy) Lomachenko, right? That was two sides of the street, right? They had to go down the same block, right?

“It’s boxing, it’s possible. It can happen. That’s where I’m at. I want it if they want it.”

Badou Jack refreshed, hungry: ‘I’m coming to take back my title’

Badou Jack is training for his December fight against Jean Pascal, his first bout since suffering a horrible cut in a loss to Marcus Browne.

Healing is not easy in boxing. But it’s necessary, an inevitable process as challenging as any tough opponent. Ask Badou Jack.

Jack is back, training for light heavyweight Jean Pascal on December 28 in Atlanta in his first bout since suffering the kind of cut that would make a lot of fighters think about a different line of work.

In a decision loss last January to Marcus Browne in Las Vegas, Jack was left with a huge gash across his forehead, the result of a clash of heads in the seventh round. Jack remembers the blood. He remembers the blurred vision. Remembers the aftermath, too.

Initially, it was reported that Jack needed 25 stitches. But the deep gash required a lot more surgery. He said he wound up with 136 stitches to seal a wound as deep as it was ugly

Jack, 36, took the time to reflect. He has his Badou Jack Foundation, which he started in an ongoing fight to get food to refugee kids in Jordan and Syria.

Badou Jack (wearing white shirt) and Gervonta Davis recently discussed their upcoming fights. Sean Michael Ham / Mayweather Promotions

For Jack, there is always another fight to wage. Being away from the ring for nearly a year, he says, turned into a positive.

“I feel like a young 36 years old,’’ Jack said recently in Las Vegas. “I live a clean life. I’m always in the gym training, and I try not to take any punishment. I have a couple of years left, and I’m more motivated now than ever.

“I needed that little break. I hadn’t had a break since I was an amateur 20 years ago. I took time to relax with the family and eat good food.

“Now I’m hungry.”

Hungry enough, he said, to fight anybody at 175 pounds, a division suddenly as intriguing as any. Middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez has a light heavweight belt, which he took from Sergey Kovalev in an 11th-round stoppage on November 2.

There is Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. Beterbiev appears to be the best. He took two of the belts with a brutal stoppage of Oleksandr Gvozdyk on October 18 in Philadelphia.

“He’s a beast,’’ Jack said of Beterbiev.

Jack’s willingness to fight anybody is not a surprise. Not a cliché, either. It’s just what he does.

At super middleweight, he beat Anthony Dirrell, George Groves and Lucian Bute. At light heavy, he beat Nathan Cleverly and fought Adonis Stevenson to a draw. It’s been daunting. It’s been dangerous. But it has been – and still is – Jack.

“I’ve been ready to fight for a couple of months,’’ said Jack (22-2-3, 15 knockouts). “Everyone who saw me in my last fight could see I was flat.

“I’m excited for this fight. I actually called Pascal (34-6-1, 20 KOs) the day before his last fight and let him know I was rooting for him. But this is business at the end of the day. I’m coming to take back my title.”