By Nick Parkinson
JAMES DEGALE’S next defence of his newly-won European super-middleweight title is likely to be against Cristian Sanavia (45-5, 13KOs).
DeGale scraped through his first fight since losing his unbeaten record to George Groves in May.
He beat Pole Piotr Wilczewski by a majority decision of 115-113, 115-113 and 114-114 in Liverpool on Saturday.
DeGale’s leaky defence kept the fight a close-run thing, but he is now set to step up when he faces Italian former WBC world super-middleweight champion Sanavia, 36, possibly in December.
DeGale said: “I’m pleased with it and I had to dig deep. Sometimes I make things a bit hard for myself and maybe I was a bit lazy.
“I was a bit eager to impress and the doubters were there. I was a bit nervous early on but I’m European champion.
“I looked good in parts and I thought I won by a couple of rounds, but I need to be out more often so hopefully I can defend this title in December.”
