DeGale asking for trouble if he faces Gennady Golokvin

By Boxing News - 05/26/2015 - Comments

1-_MG_1199By Scott Gilfoid: James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) is very interested in facing IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs). If Carl Froch doesn’t face Golovkin, then DeGale surely will unless his promoter Eddie Hearn has something to say about it.

It’s still unclear if the 29-year-old DeGale is truly interested in facing Golovkin. Perhaps it was only the euphoria from winning the IBF super middleweight title last Saturday after DeGale narrowly beat Andre Dirrell by a close 12 round unanimous decision.

Whatever the case, DeGale says he sees weakness in Golovkin that he thinks he can take advantage of. Now if DeGale’s promoter Hearn would only allow him to test that theory about Golovkin’s so-called weakness, we could all enjoy seeing whether DeGale knows what he’s talking about or not. However, DeGale could be just another overconfident self-promoter, who figured that it might be good to name drop Golovkin’s name to get attention in order to be seen by some gullible fans as being in the same talent class as Golovkin.

Obviously, DeGale’s career accomplishments as a pro pale compared to that of Golovkin. Dirrell was DeGale’s best win of his career, and he would have lost the fight if not for the two knockdowns of Dirrell. You take away the two knockdowns, and DeGale loses that fight.

In contrast, Golovkin has only had one fight that was somewhat close and that was his stoppage win over Kassim Ouma four years ago in 2011. Golovkin took punishment but still wound up stopping Ouma in 10th. After that loss, Ouma only fought once more in 2013. He hasn’t fought since then.

“That would be a huge fight,” DeGale said to RingTV.com about a clash with Golovkin. “I see weakness in him. I seen him against [Willie] Monroe. He really don’t like southpaws. He [Golovkin] can punch and he’s small for the weight [division] as well. He’s only about 5’10”. He’s not that big for the weight, and that’s when he’s going to get tested when he moves up,” DeGale said.

It sounds to me that DeGale is going to wait until Golovkin moves up in weight before he chooses to face him. I think he might be waiting an awful long time because Golovkin has no intentions of moving up to the super middleweight division anytime soon.

Golovkin is small even for a middleweight, so it’s not really practical for him to move up to super middleweight other than to scare up some fights against whoever wants to fight him. Golovkin is trying to do just that right now against Carl Froch. But if Froch doesn’t take that fight, then Golovkin might be interested in facing someone like DeGale, although I can’t see Hearn letting that fight happen until DeGale has fought guys like George Groves.



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