By Jason Kim: EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) has been matched soft for his first defense of his newly won title against 37-year-old Cristian Sanavia (45-5-1, 13 KO’s) on April 21st at the Arena Nord, in Fredenkshavn, Denmark. This is going to be like a short vacation for Degale, who has struggled badly in his last two fights against George Groves and Piotr Wilczewski.

DeGale lost the Groves fight and barely beat Wilczewski. Few boxing fans think DeGale deserved the win against Wilczewski, as the Polish fighter dominated DeGale in every part of the game. That’s a fight that really begged for a rematch, because DeGale didn’t prove anything in that fight other than he can take a mean right hand. However, instead of giving Wilczewski a rematch, DeGale is going with a much easier fight against the 5’7 1/2″ southpaw Sanavia. This should be a real easy fight for DeGale unless Wilczewski and Groves knocked the confidence out of DeGale.

Sanavia hasn’t beat a decent opponent for the past five years when he defeated David Gogiya (17-1) to capture the EBU super middleweight title. Sanavia immediately struggled in his next fight against Danilo Haussler, fighting to a 12 round draw. Sanavia lost his EBU title in his fight after that against the very beatable Karo Murat, losing by 12 round decision. Sanavia fought Murat again and this time was stopped in the 10th round in February 2009. Sanvia has been facing nothing but 2nd tier opposition since that loss, winning his last five fights to get this bout against DeGale.

DeGale’s stock has really plummeted with the Groves loss and the questionable win over Wilczewski. DeGale badly is in need of power and he fights too flat-footed and can be out-boxed. It’s not likely that DeGale will gain any power in the future and he seems incapable of improving his foot movement in the ring.