By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – There was a point during their fight Saturday night when Badou Jack thought he might beat James DeGale by disqualification.

Jack revealed following their 12-round majority draw that he heard referee Arthur Mercante Jr. threaten to disqualify DeGale during an unspecified round if he kept either spitting out or otherwise losing his mouthpiece.

“I don’t know,” Jack said during the post-fight press conference in response to being asked why DeGale’s mouthpiece came out so often (three times). “The ref said, ‘If you do it one more time, I’m gonna disqualify you.’ [He did it] a minute later, and he didn’t do nothing. So I don’t know.”

Mercante came to DeGale’s corner following the ninth round to warn the IBF super middleweight champion about continually losing his mouthpiece.

London’s DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KOs) spit out his mouthpiece during the ninth round after Sweden’s Jack (20-1-3, 12 KOs) hit him with a left hand. That was the second of three times during their closely contested bout that DeGale’s mouthpiece fell to the canvas at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

The first time it happened was in the eighth round. Jack connected with a left uppercut in that round that not only dislodged DeGale’s mouthpiece, but knocked out one of DeGale’s upper front teeth.

DeGale’s tooth could be seen on a Showtime replay hitting the canvas a couple seconds after his mouthpiece fell to the mat the first time. Somewhere near the end of the 10th round, DeGale’s mouthpiece came out a third time.

Mercante didn’t notice it on the canvas in that round. Jim McDonnell, DeGale’s trainer, ran across the ring to pick it up after the bell sounded to end the 10th round.

McDonnell moved quickly enough back and forth to DeGale’s corner that Mercante, whose back was turned, didn’t notice him run to the center of the ring to pick up DeGale’s mouthpiece.

Had DeGale at least had a point deducted following Mercante’s warnings, Jack would’ve won a split decision (113-112, 113-112, 112-113). Instead, Jack lost on the scorecard of judge Glenn Feldman (114-112) and was even with DeGale on the scorecards of judges Julie Lederman (113-113) and Steve Weisfeld (113-113).

Jack, the WBC world super middleweight champion, and DeGale, the IBF 168-pound title-holder, retained their titles. The 33-year-old Jack is expected to relinquish his championship, though, to move up to 175 pounds for his next fight against an opponent other than DeGale.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.