Badou Jack feels opponent Marcus Browne is unproven quantity

Badou Jack and Marcus Browne fight on the undercard of Pacquiao vs. Broner in a highly anticipated bout. Jack feels Browne is out of his league.

Badou Jack (22-1-3, 13 KOs) is a seasoned veteran and a two-time world champion. On Jan. 19, he fights undefeated prospect Marcus Browne (22-0, 16 KOs) on the preliminary undercard of the Pacquiao vs. Broner lineup, but Jack believes that Browne’s body of work is lacking.

Initially, Browne’s record is eye-catching. He has dominated all his fights and boasts a 73 percent KO rating. However, on closer inspection, his best opponents have been C-level fighters. He has wins over Sean Monaghan and Gabriel Campillo, but they’re far from the division’s best. Jack isn’t impressed by Browne’s prior feats.

“He [Browne] definitely hasn’t proven himself,” Jack told FanSided. “We can tell from, I’m not going to say those easy fights, but those fights as a prospect that he’s very athletic and he’s a good fighter. We’ll see what he’s about when he’s facing me.”

Browne had lucrative bouts in the works, but his conduct in his personal life interfered with his boxing career. He has been arrested multiple times for domestic violence, and he has had at least one bout canceled.

Jack is a big step up in competition for Browne, but Jack has fought several big names throughout his career. He has wins over Nathan Cleverly, George Groves and Anthony Dirrell. Jack believes that his wealth of experience gives him an edge over Browne.

“In boxing, when you haven’t been 12 rounds when you haven’t been in a 50/50 fight or in a tough fight, you don’t know how good you are,” explained Jack. “I’m battle tested. I’ve been in with the best. Regardless if they screw me a couple of times with a bulls**t draw, I’ve fought six world champions back to back. I know what it takes to be on this level.”

Jack’s draws against James DeGale and Adonis Stevenson were highly controversial. Many believe that Jack won both fights, but fans’ scores don’t count. The Stevenson fight, in particular, left a bad taste in Jack’s mouth.

"Boxing is a business. It’s all politics. I would rather win by knockout. Then they don’t have to rob me. In the Stevenson fight, I thought I clearly won. I think they said 75 percent of the fans thought I won that fight. I started a little slow, but that was the gameplan with him. He’s a big puncher. He’s a dangerous guy. You know you’re gonna drain him. He’s gonna get tired, and we’re gonna stop him. He started holding. It was a little difficult fight, but I still thought I won that fight."

The draw against Stevenson convinced Jack that he needs to approach his strategy against Browne differently.

“I got to switch it up,” said Jack. “I have great stamina. I’ve got to start faster. Of course.”

Jack had a lot of time to process the Stevenson fight. His bout against Browne will be his first since Stevenson which was eight months ago. In that time, Stevenson was brutally knocked out in the 11th by Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Shortly after losing to Gvozdyk, Stevenson’s life was in danger after he suffered a critical brain hemorrhage.

Stevenson was in a coma for weeks, but news reports revealed that he awoke in late December approximately three weeks after suffering his traumatic brain injury. Stevenson’s severe injury reminded all of the mortal dangers of boxing. Jack felt for Stevenson and his family, but it hasn’t changed his perspective on the sport.

“I was praying for him [Stevenson] every day, and I’m glad he woke up,” said Jack. “Hopefully, he can get back to normal now.”

Jack added a blunt assessment as to what may have contributed to Stevenson’s injury:

“I always know that stuff like that can happen. Maybe he fought too long. He’s 41 now. He had a lot of easy fights in the beginning of his career or during his title reign. He fought the two toughest guys in his last two fights, so maybe it is good to fight a little tougher competition in the beginning and not at the end.”

At 35 years old, Jack is an older fighter himself. Browne is significantly younger at 28 years old. Regardless of their age difference, Jack doesn’t feel that his age is an important factor in their upcoming fight.

“I feel like I’m a young 35,” said Jack. “I started boxing when I was 18, and I take care of my body.”

Jack feels like he has a lot of boxing left in him. Browne is his first obstacle of 2019, but he wants to remain active. He doesn’t want to have another long wait between fights.

“I want to be more active of course,” declared Jack. “I want to fight three or four times a year. This year is gonna be a big year. I don’t want no eight-month break between fights again.”

This year could be the best year of Jack’s career if he’s able to string three or four impressive victories together as he plans, but he has got to get by Browne first. He gets his chance on Saturday, Jan. 19 on Showtime pay-per-view.