This Saturday, a competitive undercard has shaped up the highly-anticipated Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner fight in Las Vegas. In chief support of the main event, The Ring Magazine’s No. 4 rated light heavyweight Badou Jack (22-1-3, 13 knockouts) will take on No. 8-ranked light heavyweight Marcus Browne in what could’ve easily been a main event in itself on a separate Premier Boxing Champions card.

The fight with Browne (22-0, 16 knockouts) will be Badou’s first since his tough WBC title fight against Adonis Stevenson last May that ended in a draw. Well rested and ready to bang out a successful and busy 2019, Jack thinks a win against Browne will help get the ball rolling toward his goal of becoming the undisputed champion at 175 pounds. Should things go according to plan, bigger and better fight options will inevitably become more viable with the division’s titlists, whom Badou hopes will sign on the dotted line.

RingTV.com recently caught up with Badou Jack and he gave us some insight on the strategy he’s set forth versus Marcus Browne.

Nick Skok: Why is Marcus Browne the right opponent for you right now?

Badou Jack: He’s the one that’s available. We want a championship fight. All the champions were taken up, so Marcus Browne is the next guy in line and that’s who we fight. We’re happy to fight for another WBA world title.

NS: Does that mean your strategy is to eventually target and defeat WBA beltholder Dmitry Bivol?

BJ: We’re targeting all the champions. All the major titles, that’s what we’re targeting. Fighting the biggest fights on the biggest stages with the biggest platforms. If it’s Bivol, if it’s a WBC title, IBF title, whatever it may be, we’ll fight for all of the titles.

NS: The negotiated plan you said before facing Nathan Cleverly (in August of 2017) was to vacate the “regular” title (unrecognized by The Ring Magazine) after winning. Is there any such plan with this “silver” title (which is on the line on Saturday night)?

BJ: Again, the Cleverly fight, a lot of people don’t know that that was the plan; that was the deal going into the fight. It’s for us to vacate the title, prior to going into the fight, so that we can get the Stevenson fight. We did exactly that. There are no plans for anything right now other than January 19 when we fight Marcus Browne and then our options are wide open.

NS: Including Browne, your last seven opponents, going back to Anthony Dirrell (in April of 2015), have a combined record of 184-10-1 and have had some sort of title on the line. Is the career strategy you had back then gone according to plan? Why or why not?

BJ: The strategy has and always will be to fight the best at any time, anywhere and any place. I fought six world champions back-to-back and I will continue to fight the best and build my legacy.

NS: Browne is highly ranked by all sanctioned bodies. How do you rate him?

BJ: On January 19, I’ll be the judge and the jury.

Follow Nick Skok on Twitter at @NoSparring.

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