DeGale: I see weakness in Golovkin

By Boxing News - 05/24/2015 - Comments

1-_MG_2103(Photo credit: Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions) By Scott Gilfoid: After his questionable 12 round unanimous decision win over Andre Dirrell (24-2, 16 KOs) last Saturday in Boston, Mass, IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) is intrigued with the idea of fighting IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs).

DeGale says he sees weakness in Golovkin after his 6th round stoppage win over southpaw Willie Monroe Jr. this month on May 16th. DeGale thinks Golovkin is small for a middleweight.

DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn would have to give him the greenlight to go ahead and fight Golovkin if the fight were offered to him. It’s unlikely that Hearn would say yes to that fight because of how Golovkin has been destroying everyone in the past seven years of his career. Getting Hearn to let his new golden goose DeGale fight Golovkin might prove to be impossible.

“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.

I think Golovkin would absolutely destroy DeGale. He would cut off the ring and trap him into exchanges along the ropes. Dirrell was able to trap DeGale against the ropes pretty much any time he wanted to. If you let a talent like Golovkin trap you against the ropes then he’s going to blast you apart. I just see a Golovkin-DeGale fight ending really badly for DeGale. I don’t care how much DeGale out-weighs Golovkin. He still would struggle badly against him.

What we saw yesterday in the DeGale vs. Dirrell fight was that DeGale isn’t a great mover. Yeah, he moves around in circles, but he’s very, very easy to trap along the ropes. I see DeGale as being about the same as Monroe in terms of his ability to move around the ring. If Monroe couldn’t get away from Golovkin, then how in the heck is DeGale going to be able to do it? I don’t think DeGale would be able to keep Golovkin off of him. As far as DeGale’s weight advantage over Golovkin, it would be no more than 10 to 12 pounds. It wouldn’t be enough weight to make any real difference.

DeGale is in a position where he’s likely going to be involved in a dull fights. He doesn’t have a big name like Carl Froch that is willing to fight him, and about the best that DeGale can hope for is a rematch with George Groves. Even that fight, it hinges on Groves being able to get past WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack in their fight this summer. If Groves loses that fight, then I don’t see there being a whole heck of a lot of interest in the UK in a DeGale-Groves fight. Groves’ number #1 ranking with the WBC and #3 ranking with Ring Magazine would surely plummet. I guess you could still put Groves and DeGale in with each other even after Groves loses to Badou Jack, but the fight won’t be a big deal at that point.



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