James DeGale faces Rogelio Medina on Saturday

By Boxing News - 04/28/2016 - Comments

DeGale Jack Bute Medina(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME) By Scott Gilfoid:: IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs) will be defending his title against Rogelio “Porky” Medina (36-6, 30 KOs) on Showtime this Saturday from the DC Armory in Washington, DC.

DeGale has big dreams of unifying the belts at 168 and then moving up to the 175lb division to go after the top names in that weight class. I don’t know if DeGale is going to make it that far though. He’s facing a pretty tough road block on Saturday in the form of the hard hitting 27-year-old Medina.

DeGale is the favorite in the fight, but Medina has the power to take DeGale down if he can get him into a dog fight like Andre Dirrell did last year. DeGale was very lucky to have won that fight because the ring rusty Dirrell looked like the better fight through half of the fight. DeGale only won because he knocked Dirrell down twice with flash knockdowns in the 2nd round.

With DeGale, you can’t really be sure whether he’ll win any of his fights because he’s mostly just a slapper and not a big puncher. DeGale doesn’t have great stamina, and if he gets put under a lot of pressure from the younger Medina, he could wind up losing the fight. I can definitely see that happening too.

“As far as talent and skills, [DeGale] is way better [than Medina],” said Badou Jack via ESPN.com. “But I’m fond of Medina. I know what kind of tough guy he is, mentally very strong. And he can punch. He’s dangerous. So I would say, again, I would not overlook him because this guy is dangerous. But I think [DeGale] will win, but he’s just got to be careful.”

DeGale isn’t a careful fighter anymore. He used to be careful when he first started his career, but he’s now more of a slugger and that could play into Medina’s hands. If DeGale is technical and choose to box, then I think he has a better chance of winning. It’s going to be up to DeGale. I think he fancies himself as a puncher at this point in his career but he’s clearly not a puncher.

The other part of this mini-tournament is WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-1, 14 KOs) defending his title against Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KOs). Like DeGale, Badou is the favorite to win this fight. However, Bute has the punching power and the skills to have a real shot at winning against Badou. Bute hasn’t lost any of his punching power. He’s still very dangerous when he lets his hands go and isn’t acting like he’ afraid to get hit.

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I like the idea of a tournament, but without WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez taking part in the competition, it leaves it incomplete in the same way the Super Six tournament was incomplete without Bute taking part in it many years ago.

Bute was smart not to compete in Showtime’s Super Six tournament because if he had participated, I think he would have been beaten by the likes of Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward, both of which were younger than and in the primes of their careers.

Badou Jack, 32, isn’t foolish enough to look past Lucian Bute because he knows what the Romanian fighter is capable of after seeing how many problems he gave DeGale last November. After a slow start in that fight, Bute came storming back to make it a very close fight at the end. I had the fight scored a draw, but I think a narrow edge for DeGale would have been fair as well. The lopsided scores handed down by the judges were hard to believe because the scores were ones that you would seem from a completely different fight than the one that took place on the night.

“It’s something to look forward to, but you have to respect your opponent and you have to respect what’s in front of you,” said Jack via ESPN.com. “Lucian Bute is very tough, so I’m thinking about him right now, that’s all. I’m focused on him. But after that we can talk about the next fight.”

Jack is fighting a dangerous guy with a lot of power an experience in Bute. I consider this as a much tougher fight than the one that DeGale has against Medina. It’s like night and day. Medina does have good punching power, but he’s not very tall, experienced or skillful.

With Medina, it’s just pure power. Bute on the other hand has the skills to make it a tough fight for Badou. I see this as a 50-50 fight. I thought Badou looked good in the last half of his previous fight against George Groves last September, but he sure didn’t look invincible in the first six rounds of the contest. Badou was struggling big time, and if not for Groves gassing out, he would have lost the fight.

“This is what boxing needs. The best boxing the best,” DeGale said to ESPN.cm. “All I want to do is win titles, and adding the WBC title to my IBF would be fantastic because these days there’s not many unification fights, because people don’t want to fight the best. But [this is] like a mini-tournament and we’re going to see who the best is.”

I don’t think DeGale can beat Gilberto Ramirez, the WBO champion. I think that would be a step too far for DeGale. For his sake, he would be better off forgetting about Ramirez because the tall Mexican fighter would make him look bad with his size, inside fighting skills, high punch volume and his mobility. Ramirez can do a lot of different things. DeGale isn’t nearly as versatile.

I see DeGale likely beating Medina on Saturday night, but it won’t be an easy fight for him. Medina is going to get his pound of flesh, and I see DeGale coming out of the fight lumped up, bloody and battered. DeGale is an aging fighter now in his 30s, and I think he’s going to have problems with Medina, who is just now hitting his prime at 27.