James DeGale to have shoulder surgery

By Boxing News - 06/06/2017 - Comments

Image: James DeGale to have shoulder surgery

By Scott Gilfoid: IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale will be undergoing shoulder surgery on a problem that he’s had since before his recent 12 round draw against Badou Jack last January. It’s unclear why the 31-year old DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KOs) waited this long to have the surgery performed, as he probably should have made the move to have the surgery five months ago in January or February instead of waiting outside of the ring for 5 months to have the surgery performed now.

DeGale expects to be back inside the ring by the end of 2017, and will likely be facing International Boxing Federation mandatory challenger Andre Dirrell (26-2, 16 KOs), who is coming off of an 8th round disqualification win over Jose Uzcategui last May. If Dirrell isn’t physically ready to take the fight with DeGale, then he’ll likely make a voluntary defense.

DeGale is interested in facing Callum Smith if he gets past Anthony Dirrell in their fight for the vacant World Boxing Council super middleweight title on September 9th. However, it would be too quick of a turnaround for Smith to get back inside the ring just 2 months later in December to face DeGale. Smith might not even win the fight against Dirrell, as he’s facing by far the best opponent of his 5-year pro career. Up until now, Callum Smith has mostly been fighting just domestic level opposition. It’s going to be a rude awakening for him when he gets inside the ring with the talented 32-year-old Dirrell.

DeGale is also interested in fighting newly crowned World Boxing Association Super World super middleweight champion George Groves in a unification fight. However, the two of them would need to do some serious negotiations for a fight between them to take place. DeGale says he’s absolutely NOT interested in a 50-50 revenue split against Groves. He wants a better deal than that.

“My arm will be in a sling for a few days and I’ll be given exercises to do on my own,”: said DeGale to the mirror.co.uk. “I will definitely be able to fight before the end of the year.”

It’s bad news for DeGale that he’s going to have a tough welcome back from his surgery when he does fight at the end of the year. Even if DeGale chooses not to fight a unification fight against Groves or the Smith-Dirrell winner, he would still be looking at a grueling rematch against Andre Dirrell. That’s going to be a tough fight when DeGale gets around to making it. Dirrell didn’t look to be in the best of shape in their fight in 201, and yet he still came close to beating DeGale.

If not for Dirrell getting knocked down 2 times in the 2nd round, he would have won the fight. This is with Dirrell not being in the best of shape. Dirrell has looked a lot better in his last to fights against Uzcategui and Blake Caparello.

DeGale is coming off a career worst performance against Badou Jack on January 14 this year. DeGale fought reasonably well in the first 6 rounds, but then he gassed out and wore down from the hard body shots that Badou was hitting him with. In the 12th, DeGale was dropped by Jack. DeGale made it out of the round, but the knockdown kept him from getting the ‘W’ in the fight. DeGale had some of his front teeth knocked out during the fight.

IBO super middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. says he wants the rest of DeGale’s teeth. He’s hoping DeGale will show interest in fighting him. Thus far, DeGale seems to have zero interest in making that fight for some reason. It’s unclear why. Eubank Jr. should be as good a fight for DeGale as anyone right now. DeGale might as well fight Eubank Jr., because he’s not getting any younger. It’s a lot better fighting him than facing the likes of Lucian Bute and Rogelio Medina.

“It makes our potential rematch even bigger,” said DeGale in talking about Groves having won the WBA super middleweight title. ”But I don’t think he deserves a 50/50 split. Negotiations will be difficult and the terms will have to be right for the fight to be made. He’s not got the same sharpness or attitude he used to,” said DeGale about Groves.

It’s going to be next to impossible for DeGale to get a rematch with Groves. With DeGale wanting more than a 50-50 purse split for the Groves fight, I don’t see him getting the fight. I could be wrong, but I do not see Groves aging to less than a 50-50 deal. If DeGale had looked good in his last 4 fights, then I think he could easily get the lion’s share of the loot in a fight against Groves. DeGale looked GREAT after beating Marco Antonio Periban by a 3rd round knockout in November 2014. But it’s been downhill for DeGale ever since then with him struggling to beat Andre Dirrell, Lucian Bute and Rogelio Medina. Those were all tough fights for DeGale with him taking a lot of punishment.

DeGale won 3 of those fights, but they were close and he was hit a lot. DeGale’s last fight against Badou Jack was a near disaster for him. DeGale appeared to lose the fight to Badou in the view of a lot of boxing fans, as well as Boxing News 24. The judges gave DeGale a lucky break in scoring it a 12 round draw. That saved DeGale from a loss, but the fact of the matter is, he’s looked TERRIBLE in 4 straight fights. As such, DeGale is going to find it next to impossible to get Groves to agree to give him the bigger split of the money in a fight between them.

I think DeGale is now on the downside of his career. I hate to say it, but I cannot see him lasting too much longer as champion or even a major player in the division. There are better fighters that have emerged in the division, and I think it’s pretty much over with for DeGale. It’s too bad DeGale doesn’t have any punching power, because if he had any power, he might be able to move up to 175 to extend his boxing career.

Given DeGale’s complete lack of power, it would be a terrible idea for him to move up to light heavyweight and compete with the likes of Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev, Sergey Kovalev, Andre Ward, Badou Jack, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Joe Smith Jr. and Eleider Alvarez. I can’t even see Badou Jack doing anything at 175. If DeGale could melt down to 160, he might be able to make something happen in that weight class once Gennady Golovkin moves up in weight. I don’t think DeGale can make 160 though. He’s pretty much stuck at super middleweight whether he likes it or not.