By Nate Anderson: Undefeated British 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist James DeGale (2-0, 1 KOs) stopped Jindrich Kubin (5-1, 3 KOs) in the 1st round last night at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Ireland. DeGale, 23, had the perfect opponent for him to look good against, a fighter with an unbeaten record, but little power or hand speed to speak of.

In the first 22 seconds of the round, DeGale dropped Kubin with a right-left combination to the head. For the next two minutes, DeGale blasted away at a hurt Kubin, hitting him with big left hands and continuing to hurt him as Kubin staggered around the ring.

Near the end of the round, DeGale measured Kubin and hit him with two big right hands to the head, causing Kubin to fall against the ropes. Referee Victor Loughlin then stepped in and stopped the bout at 2:22 of the round.

DeGale was met with boos as he entered the ring, and continued to be booed after the stoppage of the fight. While the knockout was impressive, DeGale’s punches didn’t look all that powerful, appearing to be more like slaps at times than true power punches. He did fight in a more aggressive manner than he did in his first fight three months ago, a four round decision over Vepkhia Tchilaia.

However, DeGale was facing an opponent with little power and it’s questionable whether DeGale would choose to fight aggressively had he been fighting an opponent with punching power instead of the weak opponent he was facing last night.

In contrast, 19-year-old Billy Joe Saunders, who also was on the card, looked much more powerful a puncher than DeGale despite being four years younger and only the slightly bigger of the two. I’d rate Saunders as the much better pro prospect than DeGale strictly on his much better power and his ability to fight on the inside or outside.