DeGale-Smith: James faces his first real test in taking on Paul

By Boxing News - 10/15/2010 - Comments

By Sean McDaniel: 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist James DeGale (8-0, 6 KO’s) is playing nice with EBU super middleweight champion Paul Smith (29-1, 15 KO’s), who the 24-year-old DeGale will be fighting on December 11h at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool. DeGale, speaking to thesun.co.uk, says “Of course it’s risky, but I’m confident in my ability and I know I’m going to win. I’ve got to go into the lion’s den and win but I’ve already said I’m the best British super middleweight and this is my chance to prove it.”

DeGale is taking a big step up from the kinds of fighters that he’s been facing since turning pro in 2009. However, DeGale and his promoter feel confident that he can make this jump up in competition. After all, DeGale is a Gold Medal winner, and those fighters are oftentimes hurt more by having them move up too slowly and ending up stunting their careers.

DeGale looks ready to take it to the next level and fight the best in the UK. He’s not going to be able to fight guys like George Groves or Carl Froch, but he can at least beat Smith and then get to the world level and start building his way to world title in the next year or two. It’s not going to help DeGale by having him fighting lesser fighters.

In his last two fights, DeGale has wiped out Sam Horton and Carl Dilks in one-sided fights. DeGale kept Horton in the fight for five rounds until taking him out with some huge shots in the 5th. And in his last fight against Dilks, DeGale came out of the blocks fast and hurt Dilks and stopped him with a storm of shots.

Some boxing fans thought it was a quick stoppage, but Dilks wasn’t doing anything and would have only been hurt if the fight had been allowed to continue further. DeGale is the real deal. He’s looking good right now and the skies the limit. He’s got to get past the speed bump in Smith, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Once he’s out of the way, DeGale can finally get serious and start taking on some real opposition that can fight.



Comments are closed.