By Marcus Richardson: James DeGale says he’s absolutely “devastated” after losing a 12 round majority decision to challenger Caleb Truax last Saturday night. DeGale says he thought he won the fight over the 34-year-old Truax, although he knows he didn’t fight well during the course of the match.
This was DeGale’s second career defeat, and by far his worst. In DeGale’s earlier loss in his career to George Groves in 2011, it was a close defeat in which he came on strong in the last 6 rounds and looked good at the end. You can’t say that about how DeGale looked against Truax. He fought well only round 1 and 12. The remainder of the fight, DeGale struggled, looking weak, old and unquestionably over-the-hill.
There are already whispers from boxing fans that the hard, punishing shots that DeGale took in his last fight from the heavy-handed former WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack took the last bit of his prime from him. DeGale might deny this, but it’s happened before in boxing. Sometimes when fighters take a lot of punishment in a fight, they’re not the same afterwards, and they do badly for the remainder of their careers. Did Badou Jack beat the last bit of prime out of DeGale? We won’t know until we see DeGale in future fights. DeGale wants a rematch with Truax in early 2018. If DeGale loses that fight and looks and performs the same way, it might confirm the suspicions t that Badou Jack wore ‘Chunky’ out finished him as a fighter.
DeGale feels like he let down his friends and family with his performance against Truax, and he can’t understand what went wrong. You would think DeGale would have seen this poor performance coming ahead of time based on his sparring during camp. Fighters and their trainers can generally tell when they’re going to have an off performance based on how well they do against their sparring partners. It’s quite likely the sparring partners had a good idea that DeGale wouldn’t do well. They’re not talking though.
DeGale (23-2-1, 14 KOs) said he plans on thinking hard about his career in his time out of the ring in the next few months.
DeGale, 31, said immediately after the fight with Truax that he wanted a rematch, but it’s up in the air what he’ll be doing. DeGale said this week that he wanted to make a lot more money before he retires from boxing. The only way DeGale is going to get that money is if he continues to fight, and is able to win back his IBF super middleweight title he lost to Truax last Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, UK.
”Devastated with my performance last night,” said DeGale. ”Feel like I’ve let everyone down – myself, my family, friends and fans. I don’t want 2 be in any other position than No1 so going to take some time out to reflect and make some decisions going forward. Thank u all for your love & support 😔💙”
Going into the fight, DeGale felt that it was going to be an easy one for him. Truax had never beaten anyone of note to indicate that he would be able to fight at this level against DeGale. Truax had mostly beaten journeymen level opposition during his 10-year pro career. It didn’t matter though. DeGale looked so shop worn during the fight, he probably would have been dominated by most of the top contenders in the super middleweight division and more than a few non-contenders.
Truax didn’t do anything special against DeGale. He just stood in front of him and threw a lot of shots. Any fighter in the 168-lb. division could have done the same thing to DeGale if they had the stamina to throw as many punches as Truax was during the fight. DeGale was there for the taking last Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena, and he didn’t have the ability throw anything back at Truax. DeGale was the perfect opponent for anyone in the division. It was Truax’s good luck that he was the one that was facing DeGale instead of someone else.
That was worst performance by far of DeGale’s pro career. It was a bad fight for the 31-year-old DeGale not only as far as his physical efforts, but also with his decision making during the fight. DeGale chose to fight with his back against the ropes in most of the rounds. This cost DeGale the fight, and it almost led to him getting knocked out in round 5 when Truax trapped him against the ropes and unloaded with a series of uppercuts and hooks to the head of DeGale. After that round, there was no excuse whatsoever for Degale to go back to the ropes.
DeGale knew better than to fight with his back to the ropes, and yet he still did it from rounds 5-12. DeGale’s trainer had to have been warning him to stay in the center of the ring so he could box and use his feet. Truax did his best work in the fight when he had DeGale up against the ropes. DeGale had little energy when he did take the fight to Truax in the center ring. It was all DeGale could do to throw a few weak shots and move around the ring a few steps before he would dart back to the ropes to resume covering up.
At all times, DeGale showed that his Plan-A for the fight was to fight Truax against the ropes. It worked for DeGale in his fights against Lucian Bute, Rogelio Medina and Andre Dirrell, so you can understand why he would try the same plan against Truax. The difference was in those fights, DeGale had more energy, speed and power. DeGale didn’t have any of those qualities against Truax. He looked like an old fighter past his prime against Truax.
You’ve got to give Truax some credit for what he did to DeGale. Truax was coming forward at all times, throwing big power shots to the head and body of DeGale. This was a good fight plan that Truax implemented against DeGale. Truax said after the fight that he’d studied DeGale’s last match against Badou Jack and watched the fight over and over, noting that he didn’t like the pressure and didn’t do well under those conditions.
Truax did the same thing as Badou Jack did by applying nonstop pressure against DeGale. Truax didn’t do quite as good a job as Jack, but he did more than enough to wear DeGale down and get the win. Traux is one of those fighters that can look really good and then turn around and fall apart in his next fight. Truax lost in the past to Anthony Dirrell, Daniel Jacobs and Jermaine Taylor. Traux was able to make Jacobs and Taylor respect him though. Truax dropped Taylor, and had Jacobs fighting cautiously until the 12th round. Truax was overwhelmed by Dirrell, who went after right away in the 1st round and got him out of their with a flurry of big shots to the head last year on April 29, 2016. DeGale couldn’t do what Dirrell did to Truax. He didn’t have the energy, power or the mindset to attack Truax in the same way. That’s not DeGale’s style to try and obliterate his opponents right off the bat. He’s too careful to fight in that manner.
DeGale’s dream of fighting a rematch against Groves and to face the winner of the World Boxing Super Series tournament appear to be over at the moment. Groves isn’t going to fight DeGale with him coming off of a loss to Truax. Groves has already said to DeGale that he needs to hang up his gloves because he doesn’t have it anymore. Chris Eubank Jr. isn’t going to bother fighting DeGale either. Eubank Jr. wants to increase his popularity in the sport. If he wins the World Boxing Super Series tournament, you can bet that he’ll be targeting the other 168 lb. champions in David Benavidez and Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez to capture their titles. DeGale is not relevant at this point given his shock loss to Truax.
DeGale needs to avenge that loss, and probably get at least 1 or 2 important wins after that for him to show Groves and Eubank Jr. that he’s not past it. The way that DeGale looked in losing to Truax, it’s unlikely that he’s going to be able to beat a top caliber contender in the top 15. Someone like Callum Smith would be a nightmare for DeGale to deal with. Had that been Smith inside the ring last Saturday night instead of Truax, DeGale probably wouldn’t have made it out of round 5. With his power, Smith wouldn’t have let DeGale make it out of the 5th.
Retirement has to be seen as an option for DeGale if he loses a second time to Truax. It still hasn’t been confirmed that the rematch will take place. Traux said he’s going to speak to his management about where he should go from here. If the best option for Truax is to fight DeGale a second time, then so be it. DeGale will get his chance to avenge the loss. If DeGale loses for a second time against Truax, then he should think about hanging up his gloves and going in another direction in boxing. DeGale would be a good trainer. He knows about the sport with his years of amateur experience. He’d be a good coach.
If DeGale does decide to keep plugging away with his career, he’s looking at a hard road back to the top. It won’t be easy because he’s not the young figher he once was. 31 is old sometimes for boxing. It depends on each fighter. It’s not just the lighter guys that are over-the-hill sometimes when they turn 30. Sometimes the larger fighters are also past it when they hit 30. DeGale might be one of those guys that faded early in his career. Who can forget Meldrick Taylor? He was at his best in his early 20s. By the time Taylor was nearing 30, he was finished as a fighter. DeGale might be another Taylor. Last Saturday, DeGale didn’t look even as good as Taylor when he was a washed up fighter. At the end of Taylor’s career, he was still energetic and he still had his blazing fast hand speed. His punch resistance was gone.