Former Olympic gold medalist James DeGale successfully defended his IBF super middleweight title for the first time on Saturday, with a unanimous decision over Canada’s Lucian Bute.
DeGale’s defense came just hours after Tyson Fury became the 11th Briton to hold a current world title by upsetting long-standing WBA, IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko in a 12-round heavyweight fight in Germany.
DeGale, who is the only British boxer to have won an Olympic gold medal and a world title, said British fighters are on a roll.
Photo: AFP
“Great Britain, we are flying. We got 11 world champions, so we are definitely flying,” said DeGale, who beat Andre Dirrell to win the title in May.
DeGale, 29, warned before Saturday’s fight in Quebec City that he would come out swinging and that is exactly what he did at the opening bell. He hit Bute with everything he had, but the 35-year-old former champion weathered the early assault and made it an entertaining slugfest.
DeGale was cut over the left eye by an accidental headbutt in the fifth round, and was given a warning by the referee in the ninth for illegal use of his shoulders.
With blood flowing from the cut, DeGale went toe-to-toe with Bute in the 12th and final round as the crowd stood and roared at the recently-opened Centre Videotron. Bute had the home crowd on his side throughout, but he also earned some respect for a display of sportsmanship — which is rare in boxing — in the 11th round when he stepped back and stopped throwing punches to allow DeGale to retrieve his mouthguard, which had fallen out.
Bute (32-3, 25 KO) was seeking to reclaim the 168-pound (76kg) title he lost to Carl Froch by knockout in May 2012.
“I did my best. It was close,” said Bute. “He is the Olympic and world champion, so if the judges give him the decision then I respect that.”
The Romanian-born Bute, who lost by scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111, said he was too passive in some rounds.
“In a few rounds I waited too much and did not put the punches together. When I put on pressure and pushed back then I won the rounds,” Bute said.
The 2008 Olympic gold medalist DeGale said his confidence is sky high and he is looking forward to defending his crown and adding more titles over the next few years.
“I am young, I am fresh and I am peaking now,” said DeGale, who improved to 22-1 with 14 knockouts. “In the next three or four years, I am going to be at my best.”
DeGale is hoping this win lands him a shot next April at a unification fight against WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack.
“Let’s do it. Let’s unify the title,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier