Photograph: Sam Wasson/Getty Images
James DeGale is one of boxing’s nice guys, endlessly polite and as open as a children’s Christmas book – and he always gives whatever his creaking body can offer in the ring. On Saturday night in Las Vegas, fit-again Chunky became a world champion for the second time, winning an ugly 12-rounder against the 34-year-old American Caleb Truax that extended his career but did little for his box‑office appeal.
In nine years as a pro, DeGale has had three British promoters – Frank Warren, Mick Hennessy and Eddie Hearn – and they all made decent if not spectacular money together. Nevertheless, he considered walking away from boxing a couple of years ago because he wasn’t getting the same shine or bucks as some of his rivals, notably George Groves, whom he has never much liked, and Chris Eubank Jr, about whom he cares little.
On Saturday night on the undercard of a show that attracted 2,579 fans to the Hard Rock Hotel – normally a venue for fighters who can’t fill the bigger casinos on the Strip – DeGale earned $300,000 (£213,000) for reclaiming his IBF super-middleweight title from a 34-year-old grafter from Minnesota whose best days are way behind him. When Groves fought Eubank in front of 20,000 fans in the Manchester Arena two months ago, in the semi-finals of the World Boxing Super Series, he took home close to £2m.
Groves, who edged DeGale in a terrific fight in 2011, was always going to be Chunky’s end-of-career banker. As their careers diverged – Groves fighting Carl Froch in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, DeGale boxing in considerably more modest surroundings – the possibility of a rematch ebbed and flowed. Now, though, there is no certainty that Groves, still nursing an injured shoulder after beating Eubank, will box again.
Groves, who has irritated DeGale to distraction since the days when they shared space at the Dale Youth Club, in the basement of the now fire-gutted Grenfell Tower, has had surgery but the shoulder has responded slowly and he might yet quit the business even before the scheduled WBSS final against the unbeaten Liverpool fighter Callum Smith this summer.
DeGale said beforehand he would retire if he lost against Truax, who had taken his title off him in December when the champion was struggling with injury. But on Saturday night he turned in a typically stubborn performance, surviving a bad early cut, a late points deduction that seemed unwarranted and scoring that did him no favours. He was nonetheless upbeat after two judges had him in front 114-113, with the third seeing it 117-110.
“Two-and-a-half years I had that belt,” he said of his earlier reign, “and he embarrassed me [in their first fight]. Now I’m ready to go again. Team Chunky, we’re back. I want to be busy. I have a couple years left in this sport.”
Steve Bunce, in his inimitable style on the BoxNation couch, described it as “a fight of several halves”. I saw it 115-114.
But it was all very low-key. Even the seasoned and reliable Showtime ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr described DeGale as “once again the IBF super-bantamweight champion of the world”. The last time DeGale made 8st 10lb he more than likely was arguing with Groves over sparring slots at the Dale Youth Club.
So if Groves were to retire now it would be the ultimate blow for DeGale, who has spent much of his career chasing shadows – many of them cast by his former clubmate.
These should be the cash-in years for DeGale, whose slick southpaw boxing has not always been to the liking of boxing’s bloodthirsty tendency. In fact, the fans booed him on his pro debut in Birmingham. They wanted spectacular knockouts. DeGale brought technical excellence. This was his sixth points win in a row.
Truax was rugged, slow and crude. DeGale – like his image – was tough to fathom but deep down there was quality. He shares with Billy Joe Saunders a dipping, crab‑like cleverness behind a raking right lead that bamboozles opponents but sometimes doesn’t set the cheap seats on fire. His challenge at the tail-end of his career is to stay fresh, quick and motivated.
Truax wants a rematch. That won’t happen. You’d have to be a masochist to watch that again. Perhaps Jamie Cox, who lost his unbeaten record to Groves and fights John Ryder in May after a quick stoppage against Harry Matthews on George’s Manchester undercard, is an option.
But the one opponent DeGale wants more than any other, for revenge as much as money, remains tantalisingly out of reach.
- This article was updated on 10 April 2018 to correct Jimmy Lennon Jr’s name from John Lennon Jr
