Photo by Amanda Kwok
James Degale (22-1, 14 KOs) has no problem going on enemy territory to fight for or defend his IBF Super Middleweight title.
After defeating Andre Dirrell in Dirrell’s home turf in May, the 29-year-old native of the United Kingdom traveled all the way to Lucian Bute’s (32-3, 25 KOs) adopted country of Canada to score a unanimous decision victory at the Videotron Center in Quebec City.
The 12-round Super Middleweight fight, which was a battle between two southpaws, headlined the November 28 edition of Showtime Championship Boxing.
Degale confidently rushed to the center of the ring to begin landing hard shots on Bute, who covered most of DeGale’s early offense with his 10 oz Everlast Pro Mex gloves, which in recent years has been the choice of power punchers.
Bute, 35, was out to prove that he was no longer gun-shy after his loss to Carl Froch in 2012, especially after losing a lackluster decision victory to Jean Pascal in a Light Heavyweight fight last year.
This time around, in the weight division in which he defended the IBF title nine times, Bute fought with a sense of urgency, knowing full-well that a shot at the title and a shot to revive his career was in the balance.
Photo by Amanda Kwok
Unfortunately for the Bute, he could only do one of those things as DeGale punished him with shots to the body and uppercuts to the chin. DeGale’s strength, speed and youth allowed him to confidently punish Bute’s body, while his footwork allowed him to choose when he would attack.
Bute, a native of Romania, landed combinations in each round and backed DeGale up several times, but the younger fighter consistently outlanded Bute in the exchanges.
In their post-fight interviews, Bute said that he’d go back to the gym and continue fighting for another crack at the top-spot of the division, while DeGale said that he’d like to unify the title with Badou Jack’s WBC strap in a possible fight in April.
In the co-main event, Eleider Alvarez scored a very close majority decision victory against Isaac Chilemba for the WBC Silver light heavyweight title.
Alvarez earned himself a shot with WBC Light Heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, though the latter says he’s trying to get a fight with Sergey Kovalev.
Alvarez won with scores of 114-114, 115-113 and an outrageous score of 118-110.
