By Jim Dower: James ‘Chunky’ DeGale (24-2-1, 14 KOs) won an ugly 12 round unanimous decision victory over IBF World super middleweight champion Caleb Truax (29-4-2, 18 KOs) on Saturday night in their rematch at the Hard Rock Café in Las Vegas, Nevada.
DeGale suffered a bad cut over his left eye in the 3rd round. The cut was a problem for the entire fight.
The fight was very boring to watch due to the nonstop holding by DeGale. Surprisingly, the boxing fans at ringside didn’t boo the lack of action. They were very patient to sit through 12 rounds of clinching, mostly initiated by DeGale.
The judge’s scores were 114-113, 117-110 and 114-113. Boxing News 24 had it as an even fight. It was difficult to give it to DeGale because he spent the entire fight holding 10+ per round. It’s too bad referees rarely penalize fighters nowadays for excessive clinching, as DeGale deserved to lose a couple of points for stalling out the rounds with his grabbing. Neither fighter did anything on the inside during the clinches, which is surprising. There were plenty of opportunities there for either guy to land shots when they were in close, but neither guy did anything.
DeGale was docked 1 point for the use of his shoulder in the 10th round. The referee Robert Byrd was very lenient with DeGale, who was using his head all night long clinching constantly. There was very little action due to the holding that DeGale was doing. Truax would come forward and DeGale would immediately grab him in a clinch.
DeGale looked a shade better tonight than he had in his previous fight with Truax last December. DeGale lost that fight by a 12 round majority decision. The difference tonight was DeGale held at every opportunity to limit the punch output by Truax. DeGale was against the ropes a lot like in the first fight, but he made sure that he would grab Truax in a clinch to prevent him from throwing shots. DeGale looked like a completely shot fighter. The only reason he won the fight was because Truax was so painfully slow of hand, and he wasn’t even trying to fight out of the clinch each time he would be grabbed by DeGale.
The win for DeGale gets him in position to face the winner of the World Boxing Super Series tournament finals between George Groves and Callum Smith. If DeGale is lucky, he’ll get the winner of that fight, as it’ll give him a nice final payday. DeGale will be in trouble if he faces Jose Uzcategui or WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez. Both of those guys would be a real problem for this version of DeGale.
