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BOXING

Swedish boxer Badou Jack misses title after fight to a draw

Badou Jack knocked out a tooth and almost knocked out the referee but he couldn't convince the judges Saturday that he did enough against James DeGale to become the unified super-middleweight champ.

Published: 15 January 2017 13:57 CET
Swedish boxer Badou Jack misses title after fight to a draw
Badou Jack punches James DeGale on Saturday. Photo: Al Bello/ Getty Images North America/AFP
Both Jack and opponent James DeGale suffered knockdowns in the action-packed title fight which ended in a draw after two judges scored it 113-113 and the other had it 114-112 in favour of DeGale, meaning neither will become unified super-middleweight champ.
 
The fighters retained their belts and each complained afterwards that they had won the fight at the Barclays Center arena.
   
World Boxing Council champion Jack was knocked down in the opening round when he got hit by a left hand. It was the third time he had been knocked down in his career, but he gained a measure of revenge by knocking out one of DeGale's teeth in the 10th round.
 
DeGale barely survived the final round when he was knocked down by a right uppercut on the chin. He managed to get up but threw very few punches during the rest of the 12th round.
   
“I thought I won the fight,” said Sweden's Jack inside the ring immediately following the fight. “I finished stronger. His knockdown was a flash knockdown.”
   
International Boxing Federation champ DeGale was standing next to Jack and had heard enough.
   
“Don't listen to this rubbish. I threw the cleanest shots,” said DeGale, who is the first Briton to win both Olympic gold and a professional world title.
   
“I got huge respect for this man. He is tough, he's durable, he's skillful. You are the man. I won that fight.”
   
DeGale said he felt those punches from Jack in the 12th. He managed to gather his senses and buy some time by getting into a clinch.
 
 “I was kind of hurt. I am willing to do it again,” DeGale said.
 
 One of the strangest moments in a brutal, but thrilling, fight took place at the end the fifth round, when Jack accidentally punched Arthur Mercanti Jr., sending the referee staggering across the ring. Mercanti shook it off, took a couple of sips of water, and returned to action for the sixth round.
   
Jack's promoter Floyd Mayweather also complained about the scoring.
   
“This is the second time in a row Badou has gotten a bad decision,” Mayweather said. “James DeGale is a hell of a fighter, but tonight he didn't win. At the end of the day, I don't know what the judges are looking at. This is bad for boxing.”
   
Mayweather may win out in the end as the two will probably have to set up a rematch to determine who is the best 168-pound fighter in the world.
   
On the undercard, Gervonta Davis knocked out Jose Pedraza in the seventh round to capture the IBF junior lightweight title.
   
The 22-year-old Davis won his 17th straight fight with no losses with a dominating performance against the Puerto Rican, who was making the third defence of his title.
 

SPORTS

Germany’s female Muslim boxer dreaming of glory: ‘It’s always been clear I’d fight with a headscarf’

Berlin boxer Zeina Nassar's fighting spirit has won her plenty of titles, but her battle to wear the hijab in the ring has also made her an equal opportunity champion.

Published: 26 September 2019 10:05 CEST
Germany's female Muslim boxer dreaming of glory: 'It's always been clear I'd fight with a headscarf'
Nassar at Berlin's TSC Boxing Hall in October 2018. Photo: DPA

Today, the 21-year-old, who discovered female boxing by watching online videos as a teenager, is a German amateur featherweight champion and dares to dream of Olympic glory.

Her path so far took all the determination she could muster, Nassar told AFP, sipping an iced coffee at a cafe in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, where she grew up.

“It was as if I had to prove twice as much because not only am I a woman who boxes, but I also wear the headscarf,” she said, during a break between gruelling training sessions.

“In the end it made me stronger,” she laughed, her made-up face known to countless Instagram fans framed by a pastel-coloured floral headscarf, sunglasses perched on top.

Next year's Tokyo Olympics and then the Paris Games in 2024 “are my great dream, my great goal,” smiled the young woman.

Nassar training in Berlin in October 2018. Photo: DPA

That dream only came within reach in February, when the International Boxing Association (AIBA) amended its rules to allow Muslim boxers to wear a hijab and fully cover their bodies in the ring.

When it comes to qualifying, “now the prerequisites are the same for all,” said Nassar, who in training and in competition wears the head covering as well as a full-length top and leggings.

“Only sporting performance should count. We must not be reduced to our external appearance.”

'I'm super fast'

Her list of achievements already includes six Berlin titles in the featherweight category, and the 2018 German Championship title.

In 24 official fights, Nassar, who weighs 57 kilos, recorded 18 victories, including one by KO, which is rare in this category.

“My boxing style is very unconventional but I'm super fast. It's my strength,” she said, mimicking a few uppercuts and hooks.

“For my opponents it's very unpleasant to box against me,” she laughed.

But for many years, the education and sociology student could not compete in international fights because of her attire.

This year, the German Boxing Federation, which had changed its own rules in 2013, put forward Nassar for the European Under-22 Championships, which however barred her due to her outfit.

Nassar, who also speaks Arabic and regularly travels to Lebanon, her parents' country of origin, said it never occurred to her to take off her hijab for boxing.

“Why should I have done that?” she said. “For me it has always been clear that I would fight with my headscarf.”

In Germany, the wearing of the headscarf tends to be widely accepted on the grounds of religious freedom.

Nassar outside of the Berlin boxing hall. Photo: DPA

Critics

The fight isn't won yet, however.

The Berliner's Olympic ambitions, like those of other sportswomen wearing the headscarf, run up against critics who brandish a rule for the Olympics prohibiting the display of any political, religious or racial symbols.

“Even if the boxing association, like most federations, has given in, the Olympic Charter has not changed,” argued Annie Sugier, president of the International Women's Rights League.

Criticizing the participation in the Olympics of countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia whose sportswomen have to be covered “from head to toe”, Sugier called hijabs in sports “sexual apartheid”.

In France in April, Iranian female boxer Sadaf Khadem won her first official fight dressed in shorts and a vest.

'Modest fashion'

Despite the controversy surrounding the hijab in some Western countries, sportswear giants have already begun offering less skin-revealing clothes to cash in on the “modest fashion” market, which is now worth hundreds of millions of euros.

Nassar is a brand ambassador for US sportswear maker Nike, which has been marketing a sports hijab for nearly two years.

The female boxer, who is very active on social media, has become a role model for young Muslim women in particular.

“If you want to get to the top, you have to fight,” read a recent message by the boxer.

“Nothing is simply a gift. Accepting challenges and growing beyond them. And don't forget to smile.”

Before leaving the cafe, she posted a new picture of herself on Instagram and told AFP: “I want to show people that anything is possible if you fight for it.”

Nassar's picture was also used in a poster campaign to mark the 70th anniversary of the German constitution, the Basic Law.

It promoted Article 4, which states that “the undisturbed practice of religion shall be guaranteed”.

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