By Scott Gilfoid: EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (13-1, 9 KO’s) made weight today for his bout against the tough veteran Fulgencio Zuniga (25-6-1, 22 KO’s) on Saturday night for the vacant WBC Silver super middleweight title at the Bonus Arena, Hull, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

DeGale came in at 167.5 pounds. His opponent Zuniga came in quite low at 164.5 lbs. That weight has me wondering whether the 35-year-old Zuniga might have stripped off too much weight while trying to make the 168 pound limit. You have to remember that Zuniga is a light heavyweight now, and he had to drain down from 175. It looks like Zuniga taken a bit too much weight off.

That’s good news for DeGale, because he needs easy fight right now because he’s already got a fight scheduled on January 26th against European Boxing Union challenger Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye. The last thing that DeGale needs is another life and death fight like his last bout against Hadillah Mohoumadi last October.

That was a really tough fight for DeGale, and he took a lot of head shots in winning a fight that was much closer than the final scores.

Zuniga fought just last month in losing to EBU super middleweight champion Thomas Oosthuizen by a 12 round unanimous decision. Zuniga wasn’t competitive against the 6’4” Oosthuizen and ended up losing by wide scores. But one would hope that DeGale isn’t mistakenly assuming that just because Oosthuizen easily beat Zuniga that he too would be able to do the same thing.

There’s a big difference in the talent because DeGale and Oosthuizen. I think Zuniga could give DeGale a big run for his money tomorrow night, and I can see an upset if Zuniga is able to get close enough to land his big power shots.

Other weights on the card:

Kid Galahad 127.7 – Ivan Ruiz Morote 129.25
Chris Eubank Jr. 163.75 – Olges Fedotovs 164
Samir Mouneimne 125 – David Savage Jr. 124.5
Zak Collins 144 – Jozsef Garai 148
Ricky Dudding 134.5 – Janis Puksins 132
Leigh Wood 127.5 – Tibor Meszaros 125