By Scott Gilfoid: In a disappointing boxing match-up, #1 IBF, #4 WBO super middleweight contender James DeGale (19-1, 13 KOs) will be facing #11 WBC Marco Antonio Periban (20-2-1, 13 KOs) in a 12 round bout on November 22nd on the undercard of the Sky Box Office pay-per-view fight between Nathan Cleverly vs. Tony Bellew 2 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK.
Periban, 30, is the big name that DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn has been talking about, and frankly it’s a pretty sad and disappointing match-up given all the talk that Hearn has been making about the fight. Periban has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights in defeats to Sakio Bika and J’Leon Love.
You can make an argument that Periban has lost his last three fights, not just his last two, because the 10 round draw Periban received against Badou Jack last year in September looked more like a loss for Periban than a win. I had Jack winning that fight by 4 rounds, and I didn’t see it as a close fight. So basically we’re talking about DeGale fighting a guy who has lost his last three fights in Periban.
Periban, who comes from Mexico, has been given a very, very generous ranking by the World Boxing Council for the past year. They’ve had Periban ranked really high by their organization based on wins over fluff opponents with awful records.
What’s interesting is that even with Periban having lost two out of his last three fights and with his controversial draw against Jack, the WBC still hasn’t pushed Periban out of their top 15 rankings or dropped him to the No.14 of 15 spot. I have no idea why the WBC even has this guy ranked in the top 15 at this point, because he was exposed badly by Bika, Jack and Love.
DeGale, 28, wants to fight IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch for his IBF strap next year on January 31st at the O2 Arena in London, UK. However, it’s unclear if that’s going to happen, because Froch has been talking up a third fight against Mikkel Kessler on that date, so it’s quite possible Froch will opt to vacate his IBF strap instead of keeping it. As such, we could see DeGale fighting for the vacant IBF belt on 1/31 at the same venue against an opponent still to be determined.
The opponent that DeGale could be potentially fighting for the vacant IBF title is from this list:
Christopher Rebrasse
Gilberto Ramirez
Julius Jackson
Maksim Vlasov
Brandon Gonzales
Rocky Fielding
Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye
Derek Edwards
Robert Stieglitz
Of that bunch, I doubt Rebrasse or Ramirez would be an option.
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