DeGale: I’m the No.1 super middleweight on the planet!

By Boxing News - 10/27/2016 - Comments

James DeGale and Badou Jack

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs) is about to take a TREMENDOUS risk with his career in facing WBC 168lb champion Badou Jack (20-1-2, 12 KOs) in a unification match on January 14 on Showtime Boxing at a still to be determined venue in the U.S.

DeGale, 30, believes that he’s the best fighter in the 168lb division despite the fact that he struggled BADLY in his recent fights against Rogelio Mendez, Lucian Bute and Andre Dirrell. Those were not the performances that you would expect to see from someone blabbering about how he’s the best in the super middleweight division.

The performances we saw from DeGale were more of the type that you would see from a paper champion, who clearly isn’t the best in the super middleweight division. I’m just saying. I rate Callum Smith and Gilberto Ramirez as being better than DeGale.

I won’t be surprised in the least if Badou Jack beats DeGale too. I’m not high on Badou, but I think he’s got enough talent to possibly beat DeGale. At the very least, I see Badou giving DeGale major problems and maybe getting a draw out of the fight.

“This is the best fighting the best and this fight will prove who’s the best in the division – and I believe I am the number one super-middleweight on the planet,” said DeGale to skysports.com.

Nah, the DeGale vs. Jack fight WILL NOT prove who the best fighter is in the division. I think the fight proves who’s the better paper champion, but not the best fighter in the super middleweight division. The winner of the DeGlale-Badou fight will still need to beat Callum Smith, Gilberto Ramirez, Fedor Chudinov, Jesse Hart and the Dirrell brothers. There’s still a lot of work to do for the winner of the DeGale vs. Jack fight they can say they’re the best fighter in the division.

“I know it’s a bit of banter, but I am the Road Warrior,” DeGale said. “I go on the road to win my titles and defend my titles and it doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t faze me in the slightest. In fact, I enjoy it. It takes the pressure off me a little bit and I appreciate it when I come home with that title – or those two titles this time.”

Well, I think it’s pretty obvious why DeGale travels around to different countries to scrape up fights. DeGale isn’t a huge star in the UK despite him being a world champion, and him winning a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics. For some reason, DeGale hasn’t been able to take his career to the next level to take advantage of his gold medal and him being a world champion. The problem appears to be DeGale’s lack of knockouts. He wins by decisions much of the time, and that doesn’t work in building large fan bases.

I hope DeGale stands his ground and actually fights Badou on January 14. It’s boring to watch running.