James DeGale vs. Alexander Brand on March 23rd

By Boxing News - 03/04/2013 - Comments

degale43By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver super middleweight champion James DeGale (14-1, 9 KO’s) will now be facing #10 WBC Alexander Brand (19-1, 15 KO’s) on March 23rd instead of his originally scheduled opponent Pablo Oscar Natilio Farias at the Glow, Bluewater, Kent, UK.

There were some problems that came up that made it necessary for Farias to be switched out for the 36-year-old Colombian Brand for DeGale’s defense of his WBC Silver strap. However, if DeGale gets nailed by one of Brand’s big right hands and knocked cold, he may be wishing he were facing Farias instead because Brand has real big power in his right hand. This guy may be getting up there in age, but he’s definitely dangerous if he can land that right hand.

Brand, the WBC Latino super middleweight champion, has way more experience on the amateur level than DeGale, as he fought 437 times, losing only 20 of the fights. At the pro level, Brand’s only loss was an eight round split decision to Badou Jack last year in May. Most of the other guys Brand have fought he’s knocked out. His right hand is clearly a powerful, and if he can land that shot on DeGale’s chin enough times then I wouldn’t be surprised to see DeGale face down on the canvas counting stars.

DeGale said to Sky Sports “Looking to the big fights later this year maybe against the winner of [Mikkel] Kessler vs. [Carl] Froch or a rematch against [George] Groves before going after Andre Ward.”

DeGale must be kidding himself because he’s not going to get a fight against the winner of the Froch-Kessler fight, no way will that be happening. The winner of that fight will likely look to face former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute, and then they’ll probably fight each other for a third time if the money is good.

At some point I can see Froch looking to face Ward, but definitely not Kessler. If he beats Froch, I see Kessler facing anyone but Ward. Kessler won’t waste his time fighting DeGale because there’s no money in that fight.

Groves won’t bother facing DeGale again either. Groves wants to fight for a world title against WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, so he’s not going to take a fight against DeGale and possibly risk losing his #1 WBO ranking. It’s going to be nothing but safe fights for Groves from here on out until he gets that title shot.

Like I said, I can see Brand poleaxing DeGale if he lands one of his big rights. I was pretty impressed with Brand’s power from fights I saw of him recently. I mean, he’s a pretty mediocre fighter in terms of hand speed, defense and left hand, but he’s got a game changer of a right that I wouldn’t want to be hit with if I were DeGale.

That shot comes out of nowhere and it’s got mean intentions. DeGale has a bad habit of resting on the ropes due to his stamina problems. Well, if he does this against Brand, then he’s going to get hit with a lot of this guys’ right hands and I think we could see DeGale on the canvas once or twice before the fight is over.



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