Saturday 7 January 2017 14:31, UK
James DeGale believes Badou Jack only agreed to the unification fight after watching his last "rubbish" performance.
The super-middleweight rivals boxed on the same card in Washington, in April, with the British star taken the distance by mandatory challenger Rogelio 'Porky' Medina.
Jack, who held on to his title against Lucian Bute on the same bill, beat Medina in six rounds back in December 2013 and will finally put his WBC title up against DeGale's IBF strap in a huge unification fight next weekend, live on Sky Sports.
DeGale had been calling for the showdown long before the deal was done and started the countdown by insisting that Jack, Floyd Mayweather and Team Mayweather's Leonard Ellerbe were all running scared and afraid of losing until the Medina fight.
"If I'm being honest the only reason why this fight hasn't happened quicker is because Badou Jack didn't want it," he said.
"After the Bute fight he probably didn't want it. And then after the Medina fight he did, because I boxed rubbish, because Medina went full rounds on me.
"Badou Jack has got a lot of confidence, Leonard's got a lot of confidence. Mayweather's got a lot of confidence of seeing me go 12 rounds and it was lacklustre performance against Medina."
Jack hit back, suggesting DeGale's claims were "all a lie" and he had been calling for unification fight throughout the summer.
The Swedish-born star was left in the dark until the last minute when he made his first world title defence against DeGale's bitter rival, George Groves, on Mayweather's final fight in September 2015, and laughed off the idea he was too afraid to fight the IBF champion.
"It's all a lie," he said. "I've been ready since right after the fight, I told you guys, we could fight in June. I told you I've been waiting for Floyd and Leonard to let me know when the date is. I've been on Leonard every day for the whole summer.
"Come on, it's been six, seven months I have wanted to fight. You know what I'm saying? But whatever - whatever's the case. If he was greedy about money, whoever's fault it is, we got the fight down right now.
"And, you know, I'm ready. I don't care about old fights if he went 12 rounds with this guy and this guy. Me and DeGale have to fight so whatever happened in the past, it don't matter."
Watch James DeGale v Badou Jack in a unification fight from the Barclays Center, New York, live on Sky Sports 1, in the early hours of Sunday, January 15.
