By Scott Gilfoid: EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) is tentatively scheduled to defend his European Boxing Union strap against 37-year-old 5’7 1/2″ Cristian Sanavia (45-5-1, 13 KO’s) on April 21st in Denmark. It’s still unclear if the fight will go ahead, though, because DeGale may or may not be leaving his promoter.

DeGale hasn’t fought since struggling to defeat EBU champion Piotr Wilczewski by a controversial 12 round majority decision in Liverpool last October in a fight that probably would have gone to Wilczewski had it taken place outside of the UK. Wilczewski looked like the better fighter and landed the harder shots. DeGale took a real beating in the fight and ended up with a swollen face.

DeGale, #5 WBO, #8 WBC, #14 IBF, needs to get busy with his career and start improving because he’s looked terrible in his last two fights against George Groves and Wilczewski. Although I still think DeGale beat Groves last May, he still fought poorly, as did Groves, and it wasn’t the kind of performance that suggested that DeGale can ever get beyond the Euro level. It’s nice to be the Euro champion but it’s kind of meaningless if you’re looking for bigger things.

DeGale needs power and he needs foot speed. He’s really heavy in the legs and tends to plod too much and not throw an lot of punches. He’s got to start moving around the ring and sitting down on his punches more. Other fighters are going to see his fight against Groves and figure that they can run from him and hit and run the way that Groves did.