Degale is now a Haymon fighter so although he will be paid ,Al will keep him in the US unti lhe gets beaten or forsees a massive pay off in the UK,Fast Car is out of the loop as far as matchmaking-Al gets the final word.Good for Degale-not so much for Eddie,although he will retain "certain" promotional rights. Welcome to the shark world Eddie and be careful you don't get eaten!
To be fair his first defence was a mandatory, I think the plan was to get Dan out of the way so a big fight could be made for the summertime. Little excuse with Gavin, only reason that was made was to get Kell and a cheap/easy world title fight made on the PPV card to sure it up a bit. The Bute fight is a very, very winnable one for JDG and no doubt he will be paid well as Bute is a big draw over there.
never easy fighting on the road depends which bute turns up degale must do work early , if bute gets confidence he was /is ? a good fighter, albeit froch definatley put a dent in his mind.
Make it a bumper bill with the nations favourite trilogies: Bellew - Clev III Brook - Jones III Audley - Sprott III
Another Froch opponent dirrell now bute what next Kessler. The inactivity is the big issue for me. If Degale jumps on Bute like he did Dirrell cant see it going more than 4.
Bute has become gun shy, Froch made him pay for his misses and now he overthinks every shot he wants to land. Because of that he lost his ability to win rounds like he use to do in the past, the ability to show his superior and eye pleasing technique to the judges. He seems very optimistic and confident, that's a good thing. It's also one of his last few fights left, and probably his last title shot he might get in his career so he'll fight like crazy, he'll give his best, might get over some of the scars he left from his most devastating defeat against Froch and even let his hand go in more than two rounds like he did against Dennis Grachev and Jean Pascal. Funny think is that against Pascal when he let his hands go in the 12th round and made his opponent stagger , he had a chance to win from a "Brithish stoppage" due to high work-rate with no response from adversary. So the skill is still there, but is dormant, and rarely almost never gets to surface. Bute will probably lose the first 3 rounds to Degale because he is a slow starter, and needs to learn his opponent angles and range. Then the 4th and 5th will be his, 6 to 10 will probably be were the true fight will be going and winner will be decided, with the last 2 rounds going to Bute. This will probably be a close fight, the fight being in Canada could win him a SD. Bute is far from what he was when he had confidence and let his hands go, but he's big he's skilled and it's his last shot at a title. He will fight hard for this and will be dangerous for Degale, who's a very good fighter. If somehow Bute during this fight manage to get a little more confident by the success of his actions this might turn into a hell of a fight.
wouldnt surprise me at all if Bute wins. even though he aint nowhere near the fighter he once was. Degale is massively overrated by some.