WHILE James DeGale has been recovering from injury, the super-middleweight division has rapidly changed. George Groves has won the WBA super-middleweight title, will fight Chris Eubank Jr in the World Boxing Super Series and could box Callum Smith in the final. DeGale, the IBF super-middleweight champion, should be back in action in December and waits in the wings for the victor.
Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn told Boxing News, “It’s a natural fight for him against the winner of this. You’ve got [WBO champion Gilberto] Ramirez as well, [WBC champion David] Benavidez as well. So I’d actually like to see James unify in February or March, pick up two belts and look at the winner. This finishes in May, something like that, so you’re probably looking at end of next year, so it’s a long way to wait. I think he needs to try to pick up another belt on route.”
DeGale will box in December and it’s possible he could feature on a Matchroom show. “That’s the plan. He may go and box in America. We’re talking to him about maybe doing something. You’ve got Joshua on October 28 which has taken 80,000 tickets out the market, Crolla done 12,000, Haye-Bellew sold 17,000 and that’s all in a three month period,” Hearn said. “It’s very, very difficult to produce the numbers needed for these guys on their purses, unless you want to lose money. Which is not something I’m a fan of.
“It’s a possibility. It’s something that we’re talking to them about doing. It’s just a case of whether he boxes in the UK or whether he boxes in America. Probably the way everything’s set up, it might be better for him to box in America this one and then do the UK one early next year.”
