By Scott Gilfoid: EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) has apparently been tossed a soft opponent in 37-year-old Cristian Sanavia (45-5-1, 13 KO’s) on April 21st in the 26-year-old DeGale’s first defense of his European Boxing Union title at the Arena Nord, in Fredenkshavn, Denmark.

On paper, you could say that Sanavia doesn’t stand a chance because he’s not faced anyone good since 2009 when he was beaten in back to back fights by Karo Murat. Sanavia has won five bouts since then, but against lesser opposition. DeGale would appear to be the better fighter with his power, combination punching and the different angles that he likes to throw his shots. However, nothing is certain for DeGale.

We saw him struggle badly against Piotr Wilczewski in his last fight, winning a controversial 12 round majority decision last October in capturing the EBU strap. Wilczewski in turn was easily beaten by former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, who made it look easy in winning a 12 round unanimous decision over Wilczewski last month on March 31st. No way was the Abraham-Wilczewski a close one. Abraham made Wilczewski look weak. This doesn’t make DeGale look good, does it?

So my point is, if DeGale can’t even beat a limited fighter like Wilczewski without controversy, then how in the world can DeGale be expected to beat another limited fighter like Sanavia with ease? He can’t and he probably won’t. Unlike the light hitting Wilczewski, Sanavia can punch, at least to the body that is. At 5’7 1/2″, Sanavia can’t punch with power when going to the head, but he’s a big body puncher and he could possibly take DeGale out with a big body shot if he’s able to work on the inside. DeGale will have to be willing to fight like this, because he’s a mover and will likely try to get away rather than letting Sanavia beat him up.

DeGale couldn’t handle the little bit of power that Wilczewski had. That’s pretty disappointing if you ask me. Sanavia is slightly harder puncher than Wilczewski and that’s bad news for DeGale. He’s going to be getting hit hard in this fight and he won’t be able to score a knockout to save him from what will likely be a very hard fight. Look for DeGale to get badly marked in the face like he was in the Wilczewski. I just hope DeGale doesn’t get cut up because he’ll be in big trouble if the cut occurs early on.