By Scott Gilfoid: EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) will be matched softly in his first defense of his European Boxing Union title against 37-year-old 5’7 1/2″ Cristian Sanavia (45-5-1, 13 KO’s) on April 21st at Arena Nord, Frederikshavn, Denmark.

DeGale, #5 WBO, #8 WBC, #14 IBF, doesn’t look like he wants to take on any tough opponents after winning a very questionable 12 round majority decision in his last fight against former EBU super middleweight champion Piotr Wilczewski in a fight that took place in the UK. I had the fight scored as a draw.

DeGale needs to look a lot better in this fight or his stock is going to plummet even more than it did in the Wilczewski fight. I don’t know much of a bump up DeGale can get in fighting an old short guy like Sanavia. Probably none is my bet. But, yeah, I’m not surprised DeGale is taking a soft touch for this fight because he’s looked plainly awful in his last two bouts against Wilczewski and George Groves. I thought DeGale looked good enough to edge Groves, but he needed to beat the guy with ease because Groves is domestic level and not in the league of the best fighters in the super middleweight division. DeGale showed in that fight that he has a ton of things to learn on many levels. We’re talking TOO MANY levels for DeGale to compete with the big three talents at 168. I can’t see the plodding DeGale ever improving enough to compete with the big names, so maybe it’s good that he’s taking on a fodder opponent for his next fight. This is just where he needs to be I think.

Sanavia is short, slow, aging and not a threat to DeGale. In looking at some of Sanavia’s recent fights against guys I’ve never even heard of, I’d say that Sanavia looks like a good mid-level 2nd tier guy. I don’t see him anywhere close to being a 1st tier guy, and that’s probably why he as chosen. He’ll make DeGale look a lot better than he really is on 4/21.