By Victor Salazar

New York - A majority draw in last Saturday's fight between Badou Jack (20-1-3, 12 KO’s)  and James DeGale (23-1, 14 KO’s) may have played into promoter Eddie Hearn’s hands. Jack was the incumbent WBC Super Middleweight Champion with DeGale holding the IBF. Waiting for his WBC title shot is another Hearn promoted fighter, Callum Smith (22-0, 17 KO’s).

Hearn’s plan, if Degale would have won, was to stage a fight between Smith and DeGale in the United Kingdom, a fight that would probably sell out an arena and end up on Sky Sports pay-per-view.

Many ringside observers had Jack winning the bout. Jack’s intent is to move up to 175 pounds as continuing to make 168 is an issue. Hearn can still put on a fight between Smith and DeGale - should Smith end up fighting Jack or the next fighter in line Anthony DIrrell, should Jack vacate.

“The WBC will send out the letter to mandate Callum Smith and Badou Jack,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com. "My guess is that Jack vacates and then we’ll move on to try and make a fight with Anthony Dirrell.”

Ultimately the plan for Hearn would be to stage a fight between Smith and Dirrell and have DeGale finally have a home fight as a to build towards a showdown with Smith.

“We got a big British fight with Callum Smith,” Hearn said about DeGale’s options. “DeGale must come home. He’s been on the road for the last three fight. I think now it's time for him to fight in front of the British fans. I think it's a chance for a big British fight. We wanted the WBC for Callum Smith and James DeGale one way or another to make it a big unification.”

Hearn intends to bring DeGale back in the summer as the fighter suffered a broken nose and lost a tooth. Jack’s promoter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., felt that his fighter was robbed. Hearn, like many, feels it was a close fight but scoffed at the robbery claims.

“Its totally rubbish. It wasn’t a robbery, it was a close fight. Jack got robbed against Lucian Bute. This was a very close fight,” Hearn said.