By Ian S Palmer
Britain’s James DeGale takes on Brandon Gonzales in a super middleweight tilt at London’s famous Wembley Stadium in England on Saturday, May 31. DeGale is a 2008 Olympic gold-medal winner who has just one loss on his pro record while Gonzales of California, USA is unbeaten so far. This is a 12-round fight DeGale’s defeat came against George Groves by a close majority decision in 2011 and this bout is on the undercard of the Groves vs Carl Froch rematch. Froch won the first meeting by controversial stoppage.
The 28-year-old DeGale’s a talented southpaw from London, and he’s now won eight straight fights since his loss, but he’s going to have his hands full with Gonzales. DeGale enters the ring with a record of 18-1 with 12 Kos. The 30-year-old Gonzales hails from Sacramento, and has an 18-0-1 mark with 10 Kos to his name. The only blemish on the American’s record is a draw against Thomas Oosthuizen of South Africa.
Gonzales has been working his way up the rankings by beating the likes of Darnell Boone by unanimous decision in 2010, Lester Gonzalez by unanimous decision in 2011 and also over Ossie Duran by a split decision. He also earned a close decision over Dan Mouton and in his last contest he managed to beat the previously undefeated Jonathan Nelson in November.
DeGale is generally regarded as a better boxer than Gonzales since has more the more-refined skills and speed. Gonzales is a solid prospect though as he’s quite intelligent in the ring and knows how to time his shots. He’ll need to against DeGale since the Briton’s pretty hard to hit squarely due to his good defensive abilities.
Gonzales is just as comfortable boxing on the inside as well as he is from the outside as he’s quite adaptable he’s got a good jab and decent speed and likes to go to the body. The only problem with him is that he doesn’t really have much in the way of power and he may have to hope for a decision against a hometown fighter. This means he’s probably going to have to dominate the proceedings to get a win. That’s not going to be easy against a slick boxer such as DeGale though.
