By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn from Matchroom Sport says that #4 IBF James DeGale (18-1, 12 KO’s) must not only beat #3 IBF Brandon Gonzales (18-0-1, 10 KO’s) in their fight on May 31st, but he’s got to really shine due to the amount of people who will be watching the fight at Wembley Stadium in London, UK, and at home on Sky. If DeGale beats Gonzales, and IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch defeats George Groves on the same card, then those two fighters will be facing each other next.
What we don’t know is if DeGale will get the fight with Froch if he stinks up the joint and barely beats Gonzales in a controversial or just plain unimpressive win. DeGale would be Froch’s mandatory, but that doesn’t mean that Froch couldn’t simply vacate the title, leaving DeGale to fight for it against someone like Groves.
“There’s a lot of pressure on him [DeGale], because he has to perform well,” Hearn said. “That’s a difficult ask because really it should be about winning, but when you’re at this level and at this kind of platform, you want to do it in style and make a statement. And that’s what I think he’s preparing himself to do at Wembley. James DeGale is a real fight for Froch, so there’s no reason why we couldn’t take that fight. Froch-DeGale will be another huge fight in British boxing.”
Hearn went onto say that if Brandon Gonzales beats DeGale, it wouldn’t be a big fight between Gonzales and Froch. Hearn doesn’t see that as a big commercial fight along the same lines as Froch-Groves or Froch-DeGale. For that reason it’s possible that they wouldn’t take that fight, which means that Froch would likely have to vacate his IBF title to avoid it.
DeGale said to Sky “I’m in the mandatory position to fight the winner [of Froch-Groves]. It’s not about if they have to fight me; they’ve got to fight me, so I’m in a fantastic position. So whoever wins, they’ll have to fight me within 120 days.”
DeGale has a good chance of beating Gonzales on May 31st, because that guy is slow and looks musclebound. Gonzales can punch a little, but he’s far from being a huge puncher. He’s more of an arm puncher than a big power puncher. I’d be surprised if DeGale loses the fight. That’s not to say that DeGale is a great fighter, because he’s definitely an average fighter, but I think he’s better than Gonzales.
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