This all-British battle is a must win for both men.
It is official. On February 23rd, the 02 Arena in London will host a long talked about showdown between veteran former titleholder James DeGale (25-2-1, 15 KOs) and his well know fellow countryman Chris Eubank Jr (27-2, 21 KOs). Eubank is, of course, the son of the British legend of the same name minus the suffix. Both men very much need to see their hand raised at the end of this one.
“Chunky” James DeGale has pretty much been all over the place in terms of performance. The now 32 year old started his pro career with the highest accolade possible, an Olympic gold medal from Beijing in 2008. He started his career with ten straight wins as expected too. When it came time to step up for an all prospect battle with George Groves, however, DeGale fell a hair short in losing a very close majority decision. Chunky recovered well though and went on to win a world title in 2015 on the strength of two early knockdowns over Andre Dirrell.
DeGale’s first defense was against a thought to be completely shot Lucian Bute, but the French-Canadian put up a strong fight before losing on the cards. That little bit of shakiness relative to expectations could have been dismissed in isolation. The problem became how much he struggled with longtime Mexican high journeyman Rogelio “Porky” Medina next. I scored that one a draw. DeGale responded by getting an actual draw the next time out against Badou Jack, but that is a fine result against a world class fighter. The wheels came off against mid level American journeyman Caleb Truax most recently, however. Caleb is by all accounts a great person and his brief reign was a great story, but top fighters have routinely blown him out without batting an eye. James DeGale went life or death with him twice, narrowly losing his belt the first time and just as narrowly winning it back in the rematch.
Top fighters don’t struggle badly with Caleb Truax once, let alone twice. Is Chris Eubank Jr a top fighter? No, but I do think he is a top talent. The physical gifts are there. Eubank has excellent hand speed and good power for super middleweight even if he is a bit small there. What he doesn’t have is much boxing skill. After smashing out Turkish prospect Avni Yildirim first, Eubank’s lack of technical ability was completely exposed by George Groves’s ease in outboxing him with basic movement from the outside in the World Boxing Super Series semifinals. It didn’t help the son of the legend’s image when Groves was smashed out by Callum Smith in the finals either.
The thing with this fight isn’t Eubank though. It is DeGale. I do not think he is a world level fighter anymore. Consecutive very real struggles with Caleb Truax has illustrated that for us quite well. This is bold and will rankle some people given Eubank’s limitation, but I do believe Chunky DeGale is going to get rolled over here. He just doesn’t seem like he has anything left at this point to my eye.
