James DeGale Dealing Well With Training Through the Holidays

By Keith Idec

Training through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays isn’t something James DeGale has had to do often since he became a professional boxer eight years ago.

Preparation for his super middleweight championship unification fight against Badou Jack, scheduled for January 14 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, is taking DeGale straight through a period that typically presents challenges for fighters as they try to remain focused and on weight.

“It’s been a bit frustrating, but listen, I can deal with it,” DeGale told BoxingScene.com. “These are the kind of sacrifices you have to make if you wanna be the champ. It’s not a problem that I’ve been training through Christmas. I even went for a long run on Christmas morning. I’m feeling good. I’m just motivated and I can’t wait, really. So training through Christmas really hasn’t bothered me.”

The 30-year-old DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs) has spent most of his camp training at the two London gyms where he usually prepares for fights. He’ll leave his home on the outskirts of London on Friday, however, for Miami.

The IBF super middleweight champion will finish his camp at 5th Street Gym in Miami. He’ll train there for 10 days before leaving for New York on January 9.

“It’ll be good to have some nice weather,” DeGale said. “I’ve heard it’s hot in Miami, like 28, 29 [82-84 degrees Fahrenheit], so it should be nice. It breaks camp up and it makes everything so much better and so much easier.”

DeGale, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, hasn’t fought since April 30, the night he beat Mexico’s Rogelio Medina (37-7, 31 KOs) by unanimous decision in a 12-rounder at D.C. Armory in Washington, D.C. Sweden’s Jack (20-1-2, 12 KOs) settled for a majority draw with Canada’s Lucian Bute (32-3-1, 25 KOs) in a 12-rounder on that same card, but retained the WBC world super middleweight title for which he and DeGale will fight.

The DeGale-Jack clash will be the main event of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” doubleheader (9:30 p.m. ET/PT) two weeks from Saturday night. Puerto Rico’s Jose Pedraza (22-0, 12 KOs) is scheduled to defend his IBF world featherweight championship against Baltimore’s Gervonta Davis (16-0, 15 KOs) in Showtime’s co-featured fight that night.

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