By Modou Lamin Beyai
Gambian’s Badou Jack, a former WBC Super Middleweight champion, is set to return to the ring against WBA World light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in their title fight on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 26.
Former Gambian Olympian Jack, dubbed “The Ripper” is moving up from the World Boxing Council (WBC) to the light heavyweight class of the World Boxing Association (WBA).
Jack, 33, who represented the Gambia at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, made his pro debut in June 2009 and has compiled a record of 21 wins, 1 loss and 2 defeats; 12 KOs, with his only loss coming against Derek Edwards in February 2014 when he was stopped in 61 seconds of the first round.
He told the WBA in an interview published on its website that: “I want to become the WBA champion! I like beating up British people – maybe I should get a British passport.”
“It just happens to be that they are always in my weight class and I have to beat them up. This will be the third guy I’m going to beat. I’m going for the hat-trick.”
He won the WBC super-middleweight belt with a majority decision against Anthony Dirrell in April 2015 and made successful defences against George Groves, Lucien Bute before fighting to a majority draw against James DeGale in a clash for the WBC and IBF super-middleweight belts.
After the DeGale fight, he vacated the WBC belt and announced that he would be moving up to light-heavyweight.
The 6ft 1in tall boxer, who is signed under Mayweather Promotions, is ranked at number 10 by the WBA and will be having his first bout at light-heavyweight.
The Mayweather-McGregor show is packed with decent boxing matches with the Cleverly v Jack fight and a Mayweather protégé, Gervonta Davis, defending his IBF junior-lightweight belt against Costa Rica’s Francisco Fonseca.
