DeGale hopes to steal the show on Saturday against Bute

By Boxing News - 11/25/2015 - Comments

degale56By Scott Gilfoid: This Saturday night on Sky Box Office, IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) will be defending his title against Lucian Bute (32-2, 25 KOs) as part of the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury night of boxing in a split site telecast.

Unfortunately for DeGale and Bute, most of the talk this week has been about the Klitschko-Fury fight, which appears to be the far more interesting fight. You can blame that on DeGale and his promoter Eddie Hearn, because if they had selected one of the talented contenders like Andre Dirrell to fight then boxing fans would be paying attention.

Instead, they selected the aging 35-year-old Bute to fight this Saturday, November 28th at the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec.

To show you how bad of a selection this was by Hearn and DeGale, Bute has won only one fight in the last three years. One victory in three years for Bute and here he is getting a world title shot against DeGale. Is it any wonder there’s not a whole heck of a lot of interest in this fight?

When you go scraping the bottom of the barrel in scrounging up beatable opposition, then this is what you get. Boxing fans have no interest in your mismatches.

“It’s a wicked night of boxing with Wladimir Klitschko v Tyson Fury and then me and Bute. Of course I’m hoping to steal the show,” DeGale said to skysports.com. “I think Andre Dirrell was harder. He was more of a complete fighter and one of the best in the division. I think Bute is still good but he’s had his best days. I’m a fresh, young, confident fighter and I’m feeling good,” DeGale said.

I wouldn’t call DeGale young. He’s about to turn 30. That’s not young to me. That’s someone who is turning the corner in their career and heading down the home stretch. If DeGale was a heavyweight, then I could say that he is young. It’s a fair night of boxing, but definitely not a “wicked night of boxing,” like DeGale describes it. Let’s be real; DeGale vs. Bute is a mismatch due to Bute’s advanced age, his inactivity, and lack of success in the ring in the last three years.

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The Klitschko-Fury fight figures to be a mismatch as well. I don’t think that’s going to be a competitive fight, and I don’t like mismatches that much.

I don’t really know how DeGale can steal the show from the Fury vs. Klitschko fight unless Bute surprises a lot of boxing fans by fighting at a high enough level to turn his fight against DeGale into a life and death war. If the fight is super competitive with both guys getting dropped left and right, then I can see it stealing the show from the Klitschko-Fury fight. But if the DeGale vs. Bute fight is a mismatch with DeGale easily winning, then of course there’s no way that it’ll steal the show from the Klitschko vs. Fury fight because boxing fans already see the DeGale-Bute fight as a mismatch due to Bute’s advanced age.



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