James DeGale: record, next fight and profile →
IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (22-1, 14KOs) is very willing to face Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs), if the IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion decides to move up in weight. DeGale, an Olympic gold medal winner, had a banner year in 2015 with capturing his world title and gaining victories over Andre Dirrell and Lucian Bute.
As I predicted it was a tougher job than many expected for James DeGale against Lucian Bute. The judges in Quebec may even have been a tad generous in their markings. Sky’s Jim Watt scored it a draw and I thought it was very close – at best a round or two in it.
Heavyweight: Tyson Fury solved the riddle of Wladimir Klitschko, outboxing the long reigning champion and ending Klitschko’s hopes of reaching Joe Louis’s record for consecutive title defenses. Klitschko slips to the top contender slot and everyone else falls by one. Light Heavyweight: Eleider Alvarez gets a bump in the ratings with a solid, if not scintillating, win over Isaac Chilemba.
JAMES DEGALE has recalled his first meeting with “mad looking” Al Haymon and revealed why he decided to join the influential advisor's ever-growing list of clients. DeGale banked $1.5m when Warriors Boxing, via Haymon, won the purse bid to stage the fight against Andre Dirrell for the vacant IBF super-middleweight title in March.
Former super middleweight champion Carl "The Cobra" Froch is not inspired to return to the ring for a domestic showdown with current IBF beltholder James DeGale. At the start of the year, DeGale was the mandatory challenger to Froch, who had the IBF belt around his waist. Froch expressed no interest in facing DeGale and elected to vacate his title. DeGale later won the vacant belt with a tough decision over Andre Dirrell, who a few years ago nearly derailed Froch in the Super Six Tournament.
In the run up to Saturday’s fight Tyson Fury invoked the name of Buster Douglas and claimed that he would shock the world in the same way. In the biggest surprise offered up by heavyweight boxing since that night in Tokyo Fury was true to his word as he became King of the giants. In truth a very ordinary fight shifted the heavyweight landscape in a way few imagined when the bout was first announced. Fury was erratic and Wladimir Klitschko rather gun shy in what became a fairly lopsided result. I scored the fight much closer and until I watched it for a second time I had Klitschko winning by two rounds.
With Carl Froch long retired and former World champion Andre Ward now moving up to light heavyweight, the top spot at super middleweight is wide open and up for grabs these days. James DeGale put his best foot forward in pleading his case as a de facto leader, fending off a determined former champ in Lucian Bute to claim a well-earned unanimous decision Saturday evening in Quebec City, Canada.
The working theory heading into the super middleweight title fight Saturday evening in Quebec City was that Lucian Bute was brought in for one last payday before sailing off into the sunset. James DeGale knew better than to believe that, put still put that logic to the test, forcing a frenetic pace in scoring a 12-round decision in his challenger's backyard. Scores of 117-111 (twice) and 116-112 were accurate, yet still not entirely indicaive of the two-way action to be found throughout their Showtime-televised headliner.
James DeGale thought he would be able to force Lucian Bute out his comfort zone early on, but in the end it was the younger defending champion who was forced to readjust in order to retain his super middleweight title. The 29-year old southpaw from England jumped out to an early lead and overcame a mid-fight cut to score a 12-round unanimous decision win Saturday evening at Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Canada. Scores of 117-111 (twice) and 116-112 landed in favor of DeGale, who made the first defense of his super middleweight title.
QUEBEC CITY, Canada – James DeGale defended his IBF Super Middleweight World Championship in a thriller over hometown favorite and former champion Lucian Bute on Saturday in the main event of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING. </p> <p> It was the first title defense for DeGale, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist from Britain who went on the road to Boston to win the title earlier this year and chose to defend in hostile territory. </p>