James DeGale looks to wipe away the memories of his awful performance in London in December when dropping a majority verdict to the very ordinary Minnesota challenger Caleb Traux.
DeGale was returning after his hard-fought draw against Badou Jack, shoulder surgery and a lengthy layoff, and it showed as he never found his rhythm and was very defensive spending long periods with his back against the ropes.
The normally very confident DeGale looked a shadow of his former self and Traux never looked troubled as he pushed DeGale onto the back foot letting combinations go at will, breaking DeGale’s nose in a huge upset win for the American.
After much thought about his future, the former IBF world champion travels to Las Vegas this weekend to try and regain his winning form and become a 2x champion at super middleweight.
The first fight should have been a fairly comfortable defence for the St. Albans man and one wonders why it wasn’t. Maybe too soon back after the injury? But in the post-fight interview, he said the shoulder never bothered him.
Did he underestimate Traux? Who had 3 defeats on his record to Jermain Taylor pts 10, Daniel Jacobs rsf 12, and a big loss to Anthony Dirrell rsf 1.
Well, that might have been part of the problem but the manner of defeat pointed to a more disturbing possibility.
The former Olympic Champion has had a great career, after an excellent start he then lost to old rival George Groves on a very tight decision, but showed real character, grit and determination to get to the top in his division pulling off a superb win over Andre Dirrell on foreign soil to win the IBF belt.
Defences over Lucian Bute and Rogelio Medina followed before that tremendously hard battle with Badou Jack which cost him a knock down, his two front teeth and a majority draw as well as a bad shoulder injury that required surgery.
Boxing is the toughest of sports and fights like DeGale against Jack are great entertainment but sometimes leave their scars which are not always visible, and one wonders if this battle was one too many for the very likeable DeGale
Caleb Traux has the benefit of fighting on US soil and will come into this fight with lots of confidence after his huge upset win believing he can do it again, but DeGale has the skills and the experience, the question is does he still have the heart for battle once more?
OUTCOME – Expect Traux to start well and have his moments but a much better prepared DeGale to take over the fight midway and come out a winner once more on points.
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