James DeGale vs Caleb Truax

Caleb Truax took the IBF world super middleweight title from James DeGale by a majority decision over twelve rounds at the Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, London, on Saturday, December 9, 2017. The American kept DeGale under pressure for much of the contest and hurt him badly in the fifth round. The near-capacity crowd at the Queensberry Promotions show had come to see DeGale defend his title on British soil for the first time.

DeGale, the 2008 Olympic middleweight gold medallist, was making his fourth defence of the title he had won from Andre Dirrell in 2015. He had been out of the ring for nearly eleven months following his draw with Badou Jack in Brooklyn and had undergone surgery on his right shoulder in June. DeGale weighed 168 pounds, one pound more than Truax. The challenger, aged 34 and from Minnesota, had lost a bid for Daniel Jacobs’s middleweight title in 2015 and had won twice since a first round defeat by Anthony Dirrell the following year.

Truax took the centre from the outset, but DeGale shaded a cautious opening round, picking his punches as the challenger came in. By the third, Truax was closing the distance more readily, and swelling began to show on the left side of DeGale’s face. The crowd chanted the champion’s name as he put two punches into the body, but Truax kept advancing. By the end of the fourth, he was catching the southpaw at close quarters. DeGale’s right jab came too seldom to keep him out, and Truax was finding room for the straight right.

The fifth was the challenger’s best round. About a minute in, Truax worked DeGale into a corner and rocked his head back with right hands and uppercuts. DeGale’s nose bled heavily. He stayed upright through the attack and rallied before the bell, but went back to his stool bloodied. Truax later said he had worked to get his lead foot outside DeGale’s and keep his punches short enough to land inside the champion’s wider swings.

DeGale steadied himself in the sixth and got through with occasional counters and combinations in the middle rounds, including a spell when he took the lead in the eighth. Truax kept coming back to the jab and made the champion give ground again. The ninth was quieter. In the tenth, Truax backed DeGale to the ropes with the jab and caught him under the jaw with another uppercut. Referee Phil Edwards warned DeGale about use of the head in that round. Neither man was knocked down.

DeGale came out more briskly in the eleventh, changed his angles and landed an uppercut of his own in a round of sharp exchanges. He pressed again in the twelfth and shook Truax with a straight left, but the challenger stayed on his feet and answered back. Truax raised his hands before the finish and dropped to his knees when the bell sounded.

Dave Parris scored the fight 114-114. Benoit Roussel had Truax ahead 115-112, and Alex Levin scored it 116-112 for the American. Truax was in tears when the verdict was announced. The victory made him a world champion for the first time and gave DeGale his second professional defeat.

DeGale went to hospital to have his injured nose examined. He said afterwards that the shoulder had caused him no pain during the contest, though his punches had not flowed and he felt he might have returned too soon. He sought a rematch and regained the belt from Truax by unanimous decision in Las Vegas the following April.

I understood why the Copper Box backed DeGale. They’d waited three years to see their Olympic champion box at home again. But after the Badou Jack draw and shoulder surgery, his right jab barely showed up. Truax had been stopped in a round by Anthony Dirrell the year before, and I reckon too many people took that result as the measure of him.

Watch where Truax puts his lead foot. He gets outside DeGale’s and sends the right straight down the middle. Once DeGale backs onto the ropes, Truax can shorten the right into an uppercut. The fifth round showed what happened when DeGale stayed there. He had a late go, but I thought Truax won it clearly.