James DeGale recorded a surprising defeat at the hands of Caleb Truax and lost his IBF Super-Middlewight title on Saturday night at the Copper Box in London via a majority decision.
The judges awarded the fight to Truax with scorecards of 116-112, 115-112 and 114-114.
DeGale was upset and shocked after his loss and spoke to BBC’s Radio 5 Live after the fight.
“I honestly did [think I’d won], I’ve got to go back to the drawing board.”
“My nose is blocked again, I’ve got to sort it out. The shoulder – I had serious reconstruction – there’s no pain but I’ll have to go back, have a look and see. I’ve probably rushed back to be honest, maybe I should have waited till next year.”
“I’m going to speak to Al Haymon [his boxing advisor] later, maybe I can get a rematch.”
Truax was ecstatic with his win after having to hear DeGale talk about his future opponents rather than focusing on him up until the fight took place.
“I want to thank everyone for the opportunity,” he said. “We noticed that he didn’t pressure that much, he’s a helluva boxer, a classy boxer, I couldn’t box because he’s a better boxer than me but I had to make it into a dogfight and that’s what I did.”
“All week all I heard was who he’s going to fight next. Well guess what? Those fights are mine now.”
Rivals, Chris Eubank Jr and his WBSS Semi Final opponent, George Groves, were quick to have their say on DeGale’s loss via Twitter.
After all the trash talk & disrespectful comments @jamesdegale1 you go & put on a display like that!! All I can say is WOW!!! You have properly let down British Boxing #Shameful
— Chris Eubank Jr (@ChrisEubankJr) December 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/StGeorgeGroves/status/939646903863607296
On the same night at the Copper Box, IBF World Featherweight champion, Lee Selby, defeated Eduardo Ramirez via unanimous decision, though the title was not on the line due to Ramirez failing to make weight. It looks likely that Selby will now take on fellow Brit, Josh Warrington.
Warrington is the mandatory challenger to Selby after defeating Dennis Ceylan in October.
“First of all it’s a massive fight,” Selby said. “He has earned the mandatory position so to get there he has to be a good fighter.
“We’ve sort of exchanged words in the past but a fight between Josh and I would be massive and fantastic for British boxing.”
Earlier in the night in London, Heavyweight, Daniel Dubois, 20, continued his impressive run of wins with a KO win over Dorian Darch, becoming the new WBC International Silver title champion.
Dubois devastated Darch within the first two rounds, 231 seconds to be exact, knocking his opponent down on 4 ocassions. Dubois now boasts a record of 6 KO’s in 6 fights.
WBO European Light-Heavyweight champion, Anthony Yarde was also victorious after defeating Nikola Sjekloca in round 4.
The Brit managed to put his Serbian opponent down in the second and fourth rounds, with the latter being the final shot as referee Steve Gray stopped the fight.
