By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver super middleweight champion James DeGale (17-1, 11 KO’s) will be defending his WBC Silver strap against little known prospect Gevorg Khatchikian (20-0, 8 KO’s) on March 1st at the City Academy Sports Centre, Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom. This is actually a step down for DeGale from his last fight against Dyah Davis, even though the 25-year-old Khatchikian is unbeaten.
Khatchikian, a fighter from Netherlands, has faced only weak journeyman level opposition during his 6-year pro career. There is zero opponents on his resume that are recognizable, and his resume is totally inflated to the extreme. You might as well classify Khatchikian as having a 0-0 resume, because there’s no one good enough to really count as an actual fight on his resume.
In looking at Khatchikian’s fights on Youtube, what jumps out at you is how slow he is in terms of hand speed. He’s painfully slow, and you just wonder what DeGale’s promoter was thinking about in selecting a 2nd tier fighter like Khatchikian to fight on March 1st instead of an actual contender with some talent. In addition to a total lack of hand speed, Khatchikian is also very easy to hit. Indeed, he walks into punches and doesn’t seem capable of blocking any shots at all with his gloves. In other words, it’s pure offense with Khatchikian without much attention at all in trying to get out of the way of shots.
JAMES DEGALE TO DEFEND HIS WBC SILVER TITLE AGAINST UNDEFEATED GEVORG KHATCHIKIAN ON MARCH 1ST, CITY ACADEMY, BRISTOL .
— Kugan Cassius iFL TV (@KuganCassius) February 3, 2014
DeGale is doing himself no favors in facing one weak opponent after another. In DeGale’s last six fights he’s fought the following opponents: Cristian Sanavia, Hadillah Mohoumadi, Fulgencio Zuniga, Sebastien Demers, Stjepan Bozic and Dyah Davis. Out of that bunch, only Davis had any talent, but he was past his prime and not nearly the fighter he’d been several years earlier.
DeGale wants to fight WBC super middleweight champion Sakio Bika, and there’s been talk of DeGale fighting an eliminator bout to get a shot at him. But thus far it doesn’t look like he’s going to be fighting anyone to get in position for a title shot. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is ranked #1 by the WBC, but there’s no way he’s going to burn an important fight in his career fighting an unknown like DeGale. This means that DeGale could get a title shot at Bika by default unless the World Boxing Council finds someone for DeGale to fight in an eliminator. All I know is DeGale is going to be in for a world of hurt when he finally does fight Bika, because he’s had absolutely no preparation for that fight other than in his fight with George Groves three years ago. DeGale lost that fight by a 12 round majority decision. Ever since that fight, DeGale has been facing soft opposition.
Here are the last 6 opponents that Khatchikian has fought: Farouk Daku, Ata Dogan, Mustafa Dogan, Jetmir Kuqi, Dominik Ameri and Olegs Fedotovs. I don’t recognize any of those guys, and it kind of tells you a lot about the type of fighter Khatchikian is. He’s a prospect and he shouldn’t be fighting someone like DeGale.
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