By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBC, #2 WBO, #4 IBF, James DeGale (18-1, 12 KO’s) has been waiting to get a title shot for ages now, and he’s finally poised to get one if he can get past unbeaten Sacramento, California native Brandon “Flawless” Gonzales (18-0-1, 10 KO’s) on May 31st on at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
This will be the first fight for DeGale with his new promoter Eddie Hearn from Matchroom Sport, and Eddie has set DeGale up with a choice situation by letting him fight on the Carl Froch vs. George Groves 2 undercard in a IBF super middleweight eliminator bout.
It’s set up for the 28-year-old DeGale to succeed, and all he needs to do is win the fight and then he’s going to get the payday of his life in a fight against either Groves or Froch, depending on which one emerges victorious in their rematch on May 31st. But DeGale still needs to win the fight against Gonzales, and this is clearly the fastest and the strongest puncher that DeGale has ever faced before.
Groves can punch, but he wasn’t nearly the puncher that Gonzales is now when he fought DeGale back in 2011. Gonzales can really sit down on his punches, and he’s very fast. What this means is that he’s going to be able to nail DeGale with hard shots again and again when he’s trying to trying to out-box him on the outside. DeGale was hurt in his last fight by little known Gevorg Khatchikian last March.
If this guy was able to hurt DeGale, you can imagine what Gonzales will be able to do to him once he starts landing his right hands to the head of DeGale. It’ll be brutal if DeGale doesn’t put his guard up for this fight instead of keeping his hands down by his waist like he normally does when he fights. Gonzales already exposed Thomas Oosthuizen in their fight last year in getting robbed of what should have been a clear cut victory.
The thing is that if DeGale loses to Gonzales, he’s going to have to be stepped back a level by Eddie and return to the level where he’s been fighting at since he turned pro five years ago. It would hurt, but it would also show DeGale where he’s at in terms of the other fighters. He needs to improve, because he fights like a knock off version of Roy Jones Jr., but without the hand speed, defensive skills or the talent.
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