By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (22-1, 14 KOs) will be defending his title tonight against Rogelio Medina (36-6, 30 KOs) in what is supposed to be an easy fight for the 30-year-old DeGale at the DC Armory in Washington, DC. Nevertheless, when you see DeGale fight, you realize there is no such thing as an easy fight for him. He lacks the punching power to have an easy time against level A fighters.
DeGale can blast out the second tier variety guys, but he doesn’t have the pop in his punches to destroy guys with true rankings in the top 10. I am not talking about fighters with gift rankings that make no sense at all. I’m talking about real contenders with true talent and good chins. DeGale cannot KO those guys because he doesn’t have the kind of power needed to get the job done.
The DeGale-Medina fight will be shown on Showtime Championship Boxing tonight. The start time is at 10:00 p.m. Location of the DeGale vs. Medina fight is at the DC Armory in Washington, DC. From what I’ve heard, the tickets still haven’t sold out for the card, which is interesting because you would think that the venue would sell out with WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack on the card facing former IBC champion Lucian Bute.
At any rate, the winner of the DeGale vs. Medina fight will be battling the winner of the Jack vs. Bute fight later this year on Showtime in September. Bute and Jack will be fighting on the same card as DeGale-Medina fight on Showtime. It’s a good card. They’re calling it a tournament, but how in the heck can it be a tournament when you don’t have the WBO super middleweight talent Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and the two WBA champions Felix Sturm and Giovanni De Carolis not taking part in the tournament.
I do think those two guys are not high quality champions, but I’m just saying. How can you call it a tourney when you have less than half the current five champions taking part in the so-called tournament? To me, it’s just a simple unification fight we’ll be seeing next September. DeGale and Jack are considered shoe ins to win tonight. That is another thing.
Why is DeGale fighting Medina and Jack fighting Bute. They should have had to fight the Dirrell brothers or some of the other contenders who are doing well with their careers. Bute just lost his last fight to DeGale. Why is Bute getting another shot at a title? Medina has lost a bunch of fights, and here he is getting a world title shot.
The DeGale vs. Medina fight is the co-feature fight on the Jack-Bute fight card. Both fights are interchangeable. I think the Jack vs. Bute fight is the better one of the two, but you never know. Medina could make it interesting if he’s able to and some of his big power shots.
We have seen how DeGale marks up around his cheeks and his eyes when he’s hit. DeGale does not seem to be able to take shots too well without his face puffing up almost immediately. Medina, 27, has the kind of power that could have DeGale looking battered and bruised before too long tonight.
“The one comment I will make about this event, other than to point out it features four of the best fighters in the division, is that it was quite possibly the easiest event to make out of all the events we made this spring and summer,” Showtime sports president Stephen Espinoza said via ESPN.com. “That’s a credit to the promoters and especially a credit to all four fighters.”
I wouldn’t say DeGale-Medina and Jack-Bute are four of the best. I’d say there’s a couple of good but not great fighters competing tonight, but a whole bunch that aren’t competing. There are a lot of guys that you could have been left out of this thing. I’m sorry but I don’t rate Medina and Bute. Nope. Could you imagine what kind of fight DeGale would be having tonight if he were facing Anthony Dirrell or Andre Dirrell?
I think DeGale would be sweating something fierce about tonight’s fight. It is the same with Badou. Stick Gilberto Ramirez in the ring with Jack and watch him struggle with the Mexican talent. Ramirez has a great set of wheels, and he’s almost impossible to corner due to his mobility in the ring. He’s also got size, reach, power and a high punch volume. I think Badou Jack would be in for a world of hurt if he were facing Ramirez instead of 36-year-old Bute.
“This is what boxing needs. The best boxing the best,” DeGale said. “All I want to do is win titles.”
Well, I wouldn’t get too carried away if I were DeGale. He’s working up a good lather dreaming about unifying the titles. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that DeGale does whip Medina tonight and then beat the brakes off of the winner of the Jack vs. Bute fight. It still would not mean that DeGale is the best fighter in the 168lb division.
That would be like the first step in a large staircase leading to the 2nd floor, where Ramirez would be waiting for DeGale. To do it the right way and be seen as the true champion at 168, DeGale would need to beat the following fighters: Anthony Dirrell, Andre Dirrell, Gilberto Ramirez, George Groves, Callum Smith, Fedor Chudinov, Felix Sturm, Giovanni De Carolis, Patrick Nielsen and Jose Uzcategui.
Fighting all those guys would literally take DeGale at least three solid years and that’s if he were truly interested in being seen as the true super middleweight champion and not just some guy that calls himself the best without fighting everyone. DeGale is talking about wanting to move up to light heavyweight soon so he can fight Sergey Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson.
Obviously, if DeGale’s goal is to move up to 175 to fight those fighters, then he’s never get a chance to fight all the top guys in the 168lb division. As such, he’s kind of wasting his time with the whole tournament thing. Instead of looking to fight the winner of the Bute vs. Jack fight, DeGale should be looking for the biggest payday he can get in the division.
My guess is the big money will be in a fight against the talent Gilberto Ramirez. If I were DeGale, I would forget all about fighting the winner of the Jack vs. Bute fight and go right for the number one guy right away in Zurdo Ramirez. For all we know, it’ll be Bute winning tonight instead of Jack. DeGale would then need to fight Bute a second time after he already beat him last November. Talk about a useless fight.