DeGale: I see weakness in Golovkin

By Boxing News - 10/27/2016 - Comments

James DeGale vs Rogelio Medina

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs) is looking past his scheduled unification fight against WBC champion Badou Jack (20-1-2, 12 KOs) towards a much desired fight on his part against the talented IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) that he’s hoping to get in 2017. DeGale still has a fight against Badou on January 17 he needs to get past first in the U.S, and there’s no telling how that match will wind up.

Golovkin hasn’t spoken of wanting to move up to 168 to fight the likes of DeGale or Badou Jack. There has been talk from WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez’s promoter Bob Arum of him wanting to match his fighter against Golovkin in 2017, but there’s no real interest in his part in taking the fight due to Ramirez not being a big name in the U.S.

You can lump DeGale in the same category as Ramirez unfortunately. He’s not a big name yet in the U.S and he still likely won’t be after his fight against Badou Jack in January. The U.S is a HUGE country, and you’ve got to do a lot to get a giant country like that interested in a mismatch between Golovkin and DeGale.

“A mega fight to me is a fight that I am in and people think I am going to lose. I am the underdog. Golovkin, it’s a perfect a fight,” DeGale said to skysports.com. “It’s a hard fight, but a fight that I think I have a fantastic chance of beating him. He’s not the biggest middleweight, so if he moves up in weight, I am going to have the size advantage.

This is what I was afraid of. Being the IBF 168lb paper champion has gone to DeGale’s head, and now he’s go delusions of grandeur in thinking he can beat Golovkin now. That’s how it happens, I guess. a fighter gets several close and controversial decisions under their belt , and the next thing you know it, they’re yapping about how they want to fight Golovkin.

This is so, so sad. DeGale barely beat his last three opponents in Rogelio Medina, Lucian Bute and Andre Dirrell. If anything, DeGale needs to give those guys rematches, because the fights were so close that you can’t even say there was a clear winner in any of those fights.
“His boxing ability is very good, he’s a former Olympian, he’s obviously undisputed world champion, but I’ve seen weaknesses and I think I can expose them 100 per cent,” said DeGale.

I hate to drizzle all over DeGale’s parade, but he’s not going to be getting a fight against Golovkin anytime soon I’m afraid. Golovkin is trying to get fights against Daniel Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in that order. Once Golovkin has beaten those guys, then maybe we’ll see him move up in weight to bigger and hopefully better things.

I just don’t know if Golovkin will want to waste time in the super middleweight division fighting small names like DeGale, when he can make more money fighting at light heavyweight against the likes of Andre Ward or Adonis Stevenson. That’s where the money is at for Golovkin once he gets those three fights left for him at middleweight. Unfortunately, it may take the remainder of Golovkin’s career to get the fights against Canelo, Jacobs and Saunders, because they don’t appear to be too eager getting in the ring with the hard hitting GGG.

Instead of worrying about a fight against Golovkin, DeGale should be focusing on the tak at hand in his fight against Badou Jack. If he can’t get past that fight, then he’s never going to be in position to call out talents like Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez. DeGale needs to worry about trying to get past Badou Jack before he looks to another fight.

I’ve already seen plenty of weakness in DeGale in his last three fights to last a lifetime. Right now, I think DeGale needs to prove himself worthy of a fight against Golovkin by going out and start dominating his opposition for a change. DeGale is winning too many close/controversial decisions for him to get GGG.