By Keith Idec
James DeGale’s fight against Rogelio Medina on April 30 in Washington, D.C., will mark the British star’s third straight fight in North America.
The IBF super middleweight champion plans to demolish Medina, though, and set up a 168-pound title unification fight against Badou Jack in London. As accustomed as he has grown to fighting away from home, the southpaw from St Albans, England, wants nothing more than to perform before his countrymen again.
“I’m used to it, if I’m being honest,” DeGale said during a conference call regarding fighting away from the United Kingdom. “I won my Olympic gold medal away from home [in Beijing]. I won my world title away from home [in Boston]. I’m actually used to it. This is why I keep telling these people you’ve gotta start [calling] me ‘The Road Warrior,’ because I’m willing to go anywhere and to fight anywhere to prove I’m the best.
“But listen, my homecoming is coming as well. That’s coming very soon. Once I beat Medina on the 30th of April, I want a unification bout in London, in front of my home people. Hopefully [adviser] Al [Haymon] and [promoter] Eddie Hearn can make that happen.”
The scheduled 12-round bout between DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs) and Mexico’s Medina (36-6, 30 KOs) will be part of a Showtime doubleheader from D.C. Armory. The scheduled 12-round main event will pit Swedish-born Las Vegan Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) against Romanian-born, Quebec-based Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs), a former IBF super middleweight champ, for Jack’s WBC super middleweight crown.
DeGale, 30, beat Bute by unanimous decision in his last fight, November 28 in Quebec City, Canada. That’s why DeGale hopes Jack defeats the 36-year-old Bute.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t really wanna fight Lucian Bute again,” DeGale said. “I think I beat him last time and I beat him pretty well. It was pretty convincing, and I had everything against me as well, and I still beat him well. I wanna box [someone] fresh, a new world champion, someone like Badou Jack. I think that the clash of styles would be fantastic. We’re both hungry, we’re both young and we’re peaking. I think it would be a fantastic fight. But if Lucian Bute wins, and he wins in fashion, we can do it again, as I say. But this time around, we’ll do it in London.”
The 32-year-old Jack is 4-0 and has won the WBC 168-pound championship since suffering a surprising first-round technical knockout defeat to Derek Edwards (27-6-1, 14 KOs) in February 2014.
Whomever wins the Jack-Bute bout, DeGale considers it important for the victors in this Showtime doubleheader to fight each other next.
“This is what boxing needs, the best boxing the best,” DeGale said. “As I say, all I wanna do is win titles and to add the WBC title to my IBF would be fantastic. Because these days, there’s not many unification fights because people don’t wanna fight the best. But these four fighters have come together in like a little tournament, a committee tournament, and we’re gonna see who the best is.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.