AN injury as horrific as the cut Badou Jack suffered against Marcus Browne in January could bring a boxerโ€™s career to an end, especially at the age of 35 and with a sequence of world title fights already behind him.

But Jack intends to come back, targeting a return later this year and he wants a rematch. โ€œI would love a rematch with Marcus Browne,โ€ he told Boxing News. โ€œI had that big cut but itโ€™s healing good now. I think August, September I would love to be back in the ring.โ€

He is adamant the cut affected his performance and was a key factor in his points loss to Browne over 12 rounds. โ€œOh definitely. I could barely see I had like a yellow layer over my eyes I was trying to wipe it off it was still there. I mean, I could barely see,โ€ Jack said. โ€œThat guy was getting tired and I’m known for finishing strong. This guy has never been on this level before and I thought I could stop him, Iโ€™m going to break him down and get him out of there. It was kind of hard. I couldnโ€™t see.โ€

It was an accidental head butt hat did the damage. Jack had to admit, โ€œI lost a lot of blood, I donโ€™t know exactly how much. But yeah, there was a doctor there, a friend of mine, he said most people if they lose that much blood they’re going to pass out. But it’s amazing that you went 12 rounds with it. I mean half of that fight, I got the cut in the seventh round, it was pretty hard but Iโ€™m a fighter, Iโ€™m going to keep fighting.

โ€œI’m not going to quit I’m going to continue to fight as long as I canโ€ฆ It was bleeding really bad and I could barely see during the fight but I didn’t know it was that big, that the gap was that big so I just saw it when I got in the locker room so I was like wow.โ€

The cut needed a lot of stitches. โ€œIt was three layers. I donโ€™t remember exactly [how many stitches], between 75 and 100 maybe,โ€ he noted.

Badou Jack

He has been recovering and starting to train, though wonโ€™t be sparring for a while yet. In the meantime he is starting his own promotional company and will be staging an event in Dubai on May 3. โ€œI wanted to try something different and I’m very excited,โ€ he said. โ€œI think that’d be a great place to start itโ€™s like kind of the Las Vegas of the Middle East.

โ€œI take one fight at a time and see how it goes and same thing with the promotional company we’re going to take one show at a time. This is a learning experience, this is my first show so I don’t really know how things are going to play out, just work hard and hope for the best so yeah, we’ll see what’s going to happen.โ€

But Jack believes he has learned from his own promoter, Floyd Mayweather. โ€œHe’s a little different from other promoters. So I learned a lot from him,โ€ Badou said. โ€œHe’s more personal.

โ€œIt’s more of a personal thing. Like more of a friendship his promotional thing rather than other promoters, which is just business. So I mean, he has a small team. So I’ve been around him for like seven, eight years now. And I learned a lot from him. So it’s good to have a mentor not just as a great fighter but a good promoter also. [With Mayweather] I think it’s a little bit of everything, both he’s an amazing talent and a great, great fighter, but also his personality and his dedication. He trains like he’s broke like he’s still hungry. You know, even for the [Conor] McGregor fight he trained pretty hard.โ€

Jack is already thinking about life after boxing. He just hopes he’s learned from the best.