DeGale wants Badou Jack unification fight in September

By Boxing News - 03/29/2016 - Comments

degale (2)By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs) needs to win his next fight against his IBF mandatory challenger Rogelio Medina (36-6, 30 KOs) on April 30 to be able to face WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KOs) later this year in September in a unification fight that DeGale, 30, is hoping will take place in the UK at the O2 Arena in London rather than in a neutral site that would be fair for both fighters.

Badou, 32, will be fighting on the same card on April 23 as DeGale, and he’ll be facing arguably the better challenger in #8 WBC Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs). This is going to be a tough fight for Badou, because Bute showed last November in his fight against DeGale that he still has a lot left in the tank.

Many boxing fans thought Bute deserved at least a draw against DeGale if not a victory. I had Bute getting a draw out of that fight. I counted six rounds that he CLEARLY won. But I guess when you fight a champion, you’ve got to really whip them in order to get the victory. Bute didn’t whip DeGale, but he did win six rounds on my scorecard. I thought he was royally robbed in that fight. The Badou-Bute and DeGale-Medina fights will be televised on Showtime Boxing in the States, and on Sky Sports in the UK.

“I want to box at The O2. I want to feel the buzz, I want to feel the atmosphere and it’s coming. If I get through this and Jack gets through his fight against Bute, the homecoming is coming,” said DeGale via skysports.com. “One hundred per cent it is coming to London if we both look good. I spoke to Al Haymon [Bute’s promoter] and I spoke to Eddie Hearn [his own promoter] and, if we both win, it’s coming to London.”

I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall for this conversation between DeGale and Haymon, because I’m not buying any of this. I can’t see Haymon having Badou come to the UK to fight DeGale. That would be too much of an advantage for DeGale. I’ll believe it when I see it.

DeGale hasn’t fought at home in the UK since 2014, when he beat Marco Antonio Periban. Since then, DeGale has fought his last two fights overseas in the United States against Andre Dirrell and in Canada against Bute. DeGale barely beat Dirrell in the U.S last year, and as I already said, DeGale won a questionable 12 round decision over Bute last November.

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The DeGale-Dirrell fight would have been won by Dirrell if he hadn’t been knocked down twice in the 2nd round. The first knockdown was a flash knockdown that wasn’t a big deal. The second knockdown in the round was a clear push by DeGale. He went MMA on Dirrell and shoved him to the canvas.

I still don’t know why the referee couldn’t see the push, because I saw it and I think it shouldn’t have been a knockdown. If you take away those two knockdowns, then Dirrell would have won the fight. As such, DeGale didn’t look that great in his two fights outside of the comforts of the UK in 2015, and he’s quite fortunate that he’s not limping home now with two straight losses on his resume rather than two victories.

“Obviously I have won my world title but unifying the division and winning that green belt would be a dream come true. So I have got to keep on working hard, keep focused and it will definitely come,” said DeGale. “I’m hoping Jack wins because the unification fight with me and him this September in London – my homecoming – that’s what I want.”

DeGale is barking up the wrong tree by looking to fight a talent like Badou. I think it’s a mistake fight on DeGale’s part if he faces Badou, because this is the wrong style for DeGale. Badou is a pressure fighter with the ability to punch to the body from the word go. Badou does well against mobile fighters like DeGale, as he goes after their body and is able to take away their legs.

I think Badou’s body work would have DeGale stationary and helpless by the 6th round. If you take away DeGale’s legs, it’s the equivalent of taking the wings off of harmless house fly. DeGale would be forced to fight Badou in a phone booth at that stage, and I see him taking a terrible beating and likely getting knocked out in front of his own fans in London, if the fight winds up being staged over there. Like I said, I’ll believe it when I see it. I can’t see Haymon letting a talent like Badou fight in the UK in front of a mess of DeGale fans. Every missed punch by DeGale will be cheered loudly by his loyal fans, and the scoring might end up being haywire unless the judges wear earphones to block out all that screaming and singing from DeGale’s fans.



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