By Sean McDaniel: Newly crowned British super middleweight champion James DeGale (9-0, 7 KO’s) wants to fight former International Boxing Organization and current EBU super middleweight champion Brian Magee (34-3-1, 24 KO’s) next after DeGale destroyed a badly over-matched British champion Paul Smith in a 9th round stoppage last weekend at the Echo Arena, in Liverpool, England.
Magee, 35, is ranked #1 by the WBA and #8 by the IBF. It’s impossible to say why those sanctioning bodies have Magee ranked so highly because there’s precious few wins in Magee’s career that would lead me to believe that he deserves to be ranked anywhere close to even the bottom 20 position, let alone at number #1.
DeGale obviously sees Magee’s high ranking and has noted, as I have, how average Magee looks in all of his fights. This might even be a significant step down for DeGale from Smith if DeGale were able to land a fight with Magee. It’s doubtful that DeGale will be able to fight Magee next, because he’s rumored to be International Boxing Federation (IBF) super middleweight champion Lucian Bute’s next opponent early next year. Magee won’t likely set that fight aside just to fight DeGale.
In an article at frankwarren.tv, DeGale said “Now I’ve got the British, I’ve got to think about where I could go next, and Magee is one man I would like to fight. People said I would not have enough experiences to fight Paul Smith, but I went in there and proved I can fight long distances. Magee is on the verge of a world title shot, so who knows if he would want to fight me. But if he wanted it, I would say yes straight away.”
Of course DeGale would. Magee is very average, and doesn’t really stand out in any one area. This is a fight that DeGale could win without any problems. But the win would be a good one in pushing DeGale up the world rankings given Magee’s high rankings.
DeGale looked nothing short of sensational in taking out a very good fighter in Paul Smith. DeGale stayed relaxed the entire fight, switching fighting stances and raking Smith with combinations to the head and body. Smith was able to land an occasional nice shot for the first four rounds. However, the fight turned into a total one-sided mismatch starting in the 5th when DeGale began to land combinations that backed Smith up. Smith was cut over his right eye in the 4th from a clash of heads. However, that wasn’t the reason he struggled against DeGale.
Smith began to tire out after the 4th and couldn’t match DeGale’s work rate or keep up with all the fighting angles DeGale was showing. In the 9th round, DeGale landed a series of hard left hooks that snapped Smith’s head around like it was on a swivel. Referee Howard John Foster then stepped in and halted the fight at 2:08 of the 9th with Smith still on his feet.
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