James DeGale

James DeGale
James DeGale 2011
Data
Birth Name	James DeGale
Fight name	Chunky
Weight class	Super middleweight
nationality	British
birthday	3rd February 1986
place of birth	London
style	Southpaw
size	1.84 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	29
Victories	25th
Knockout victories	15th
Defeats	3
draw	1

James "Chunky" DeGale MBE (born February 3, 1986 in London ) is a former British boxer . He won the Olympic gold medal in the middleweight division in Beijing in 2008 , is a former professional European champion of the EBU in the super middleweight division and was a two-time world champion of the IBF in the super middleweight division.

He is the first British boxer in sporting history to become an Olympic and professional world champion in one of the four recognized world associations.

Amateur career

James DeGale won the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia and reached the quarter-finals of the 2004 Junior World Championships in South Korea , where he was eliminated by Abbos Atoyev .

In 2005 he won the Commonwealth Championships in Scotland , defeating Eamon O'Kane in the final . At the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia, he lost to Jarrod Fletcher in the semifinals and won bronze. At the European Championships in Bulgaria in 2006 , however, he was eliminated in the preliminary round against Andranik Hakobjan . In 2005 and 2006 he also won the English championships.

He won the silver medal at the EU championships in Ireland in 2007 and in Poland in 2008 . He was defeated in both finals against Darren Sutherland . Against Alfonso Blanco , he was also eliminated in the preliminary round at the 2007 World Championships in the USA .

In 2008 he defeated Georgi Nakani, Guzman Castillo, Darren Sutherland and István Szili in the European Olympic qualification in Italy , which qualified him for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing . There he defeated the African champion Mohamed Hikal (13: 4) in the preliminary round and the winner of the US Olympic qualification, Shawn Estrada (11: 5) in the round of 16 . In the quarterfinals he defeated Baqtiyar Artajew (8: 3), Olympic champion in 2004 and bronze winner of the 2007 World Cup, which made him one of the medals. In the semifinals he again defeated Darren Sutherland (10: 3), who had won the second European Olympic qualification tournament in Greece with five wins . As the only British boxer, he made it to the final and won there against the reigning Pan American champion Emilio Correa (16:14). DeGale became the first and so far last (2020) British Olympic champion in boxing in this weight class since Chris Finnegan in 1968.

Professional career

After the Olympics, DeGale moved to the professional camp and was signed by British promoter and manager Frank Warren . He made his professional debut on February 28, 2009 in Birmingham .

In his seventh fight on May 15, 2010, he defeated his compatriot Sam Horton and thereby became WBA International Super Middleweight Champion . He defended the title in September 2010 by TKO in the first round against Carl Dilks.

On December 11, 2010 he boxed for the British Championship (BBBofC) in the super middleweight division, beating Paul Smith by TKO. When trying to secure the Commonwealth Championship in this weight class on May 21, 2011 , he was narrowly defeated by majority decision against George Groves .

In his next fight on October 15, 2011, he won on points against Piotr Wilczewski and thereby became European Champion (EBU) and WBO Intercontinental Super Middleweight Champion . He defended the European championship belt in April 2012 against the Italian Cristian Sanavia and in October 2012 against the French Hadillah Mohoumadi.

He won the WBC Silver super middleweight title on December 8, 2012 against the Colombian Fulgencio Zuñiga. After a subsequent win against the Canadian Sébastien Demers, he defended the title against the Croatian Stjepan Božić , the American Dyah Davis and the Dutch Gevorg Khatchikian.

With two more victories against the American Brandon Gonzáles and the Mexican Marco Peribán, he qualified for a world championship fight of the IBF in the super middleweight division. The world championship belt was vacant after Carl Froch resigned it in February 2015. His opponent in the fight for the title was the American Andre Dirrell , who narrowly lost to Carl Froch in the fight for the WBC world title in 2009 and has since won six fights. DeGale won the fight on May 23, 2015 in Boston unanimously on points and had Dirrell , which Ring Magazine ranked 7th in the world, twice on the ground. DeGale thus became the first British Olympic champion in boxing who was also able to secure a world championship title from a recognized association (WBA, WBO, WBC, IBF) during his professional career.

On November 28, 2015, he won his first title defense unanimously on points against Lucian Bute , who had also carried the IBF title from 2007 to 2012, before he was dethroned by Carl Froch after nine title defenses. The fight between Bute and DeGale was fought in Bute's adopted home Québec . On April 30, 2016, DeGale won another title defense in Washington, DC unanimously against Mexican Rogelio Medina.

On January 14, 2017, he boxed in a title association in New York City against the Swedish WBC world champion Badou Jack , who had also defeated Marco Peribán, Rogelio Medina and Lucian Bute, as well as DeGale conqueror George Groves, among others. The fight ended in a draw, as a result of which both fighters retained their titles. In the course of the fight both boxers were on the ground.

On December 9, 2017, DeGale finally lost his IBF title in London by a majority decision on points to the American Caleb Truax , but won the title back through a unanimous win in the direct rematch on April 7, 2018 in Las Vegas .

On February 23, 2019, DeGale lost unanimously on points to compatriot Chris Eubank Jr. and also suffered two knockdowns during the fight. After that fight, DeGale announced his retirement from boxing.

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 2005 to 2008,
• [1]
• www.results.bejing2008.cn
• www.melbourne2006.com.au

Web links

• James DeGale in the BoxRec database
• Page about James Degale for the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Individual evidence