By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver super middleweight strap holder James DeGale (16-1, 11 KO’s) will be putting his Silver belt on the line tonight against the son of former U.S 1976 Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis in Dyah Davis (22-3-1, 10 KO’s) at the Glow, Bluewater, Greenhithe, Kent, United Kingdom.
DeGale, 27, has been flapping his gums recently about wanting a title shot against Carl Froch, Sakio Bika and Andre Ward, so DeGale’s going to need to make sure he doesn’t royally blow it by getting whipped by Davis tonight, because a loss to this guy will ruin DeGale’s dreams for years to come.
I think DeGale could come back from a loss to Davis, but I think it would take at least 2 years to get back to where he is now for him to get in the position for a title shot.
DeGale’s handlers haven’t taken any chances with him since his loss to George Groves in 2011. DeGale has had six weak opponents since that time, and tonight will be his 7th. They have taken zero chances with DeGale by making sure that he doesn’t get beaten by matching him with care. It’s a double-edged sward when you have match-making like the kind DeGale has had. Sure, you win all your fights and eventually get into the position for a world title shot, but it takes a heck of a lot longer to come back because the sanctioning bodies aren’t going to push you up quickly when you’re facing scrubs instead of top contenders. At the same time, you don’t improve when you’re facing guys that have been dragged into the fight for you to look good against. As such, I see DeGale as being the same guy that Groves beat two years ago, but probably not even as good as that due to the two years of weak opponents that has been fed to DeGale.
In DeGale’s last six fights, he’s beaten Stjepan Bozic, Sebastien Demers, Fulgencio Zuniga, Hadillah Mohoumadi, Cristian Sanavia and Piotr Wilcewski.
The 32-year-old Dyah Davis won his last fight against 41-year-old Antwun Echols last August by a 3rd round knockout. Before that, Davis had been stopped in the 10th round by Sakio Bika last year in June. Davis does have some decent wins on his resume with victories over Alfonso Lopez, Darnell Boone, Marcus Johnson, Garrett Wilson and Osumanu Adama. But Davis also has defeats to Aaron Pryor Jr. and Tyrone Watson, in addition to his loss to Bika.
All I can say is DeGale may need to retire if he gets beaten by Davis tonight, because if he can’t beat a fighter of this class, then there’s no point in DeGale sticking around hoping to become a world champion one of these days because it clearly won’t happen. Tonight’s fight is a weeding out type of a bout. If DeGale loses, then he’s pretty much weeded out from the top guys and in a situation where he’ll have a hard time trying to do anything with his career.
I think Davis has a chance to beat DeGale tonight, but that’s only because DeGale hasn’t looked like anything special since turning pro in 2009.
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