By William Mackay: The IBF ordered a 168 lb eliminator bout between Adonis Stevenson (18-1, 15 KO’s) and Edwin Rodriguez for August 11th with the winner of that fight to become the mandatory challenger for IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch.
However, it looks like Rodriguez isn’t going to take that fight, and it also appears that many of the other contenders are either not interested or busy during that time.
EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale, #7 IBF, just happens to be one of the higher ranked fighters that the IBF has available for the Stevenson fight. My question is would DeGale agree to take a fight against a puncher like Stevenson if it means that he’ll become Froch’s mandatory?
It’s a win-win situation for DeGale because if he beats Stevenson, he’ll get a lot of attention in the boxing world and will get a big money fight against Froch in what would be an all UK fight.
I don’t see how DeGale could say no to the fight unless he or his promoter gets cold feet about the idea of him facing a fighter with the kind of power that Stevenson has. DeGale couldn’t afford to make any mistakes against a puncher like Stevenson because he’d get his head taken off with one his huge shots. I’m just wondering if DeGale would be courageous enough to take the fight in the first place.
I would be pretty surprised if DeGale chose to take this fight because he’s been so carefully matched up to this point in his career. Here he is at 26 still fighting guys like Cristian Sanavia instead of moving up to the world stage and trying his hand.
If DeGale decides to face Stevenson, he’ll have to agree to fight him in Montreal because that’s where Stevenson will be fighting next. DeGale would be taking a risk by traveling down there but he wouldn’t likely have to worry about being robbed by the referees, because if he loses it’ll be by a knockout.
Comments are closed.