James DeGale says his challenger Lucian Bute has not looked the same since losing to his fellow Briton Carl Froch.
Canada-based Romanian Bute (32-2, 25 KOs) was wiped out in five rounds by Froch in 2012 and has fought just three times since. On Saturday he fights DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs), who will be making a first defence of his IBF world super-middleweight title at the new Centre Videotron.
Bute, 35, lost one of those three fights since suffering defeat by Nottingham’s now-retired Froch, but he has home advantage in Quebec City against DeGale, who won the belt with a points decision over American Andre Dirrell in Boston last May.
Londoner DeGale, 29, felt comfortable enough to relinquish home advantage for a bigger purse against Bute but hopes his fight first defence will not be judged too closely with Froch’s impressive effort against the same opponent.
“Carl did a proper number on Bute, so I don’t want people to judge and try to match the performances,” DeGale told ESPN. “All I want to do is win and win well. I think it will be a lot different. If I am being brutally honest with you, since the Carl Froch fight I don’t think he has looked the same fighter.
“I think he was a Jeff Lacy kind of fighter before he faced Joe Calzaghe: over-hyped. Lacy was hyped, matched well and when it came down to it Joe won easy.
“Froch went in their hungry and determined and since then Bute has been beaten by Jean Pascal and stepped up to light-heavyweight.
“I remember watching the Froch-Bute fight live and thinking, ‘he’s scared of the whole crowd, the atmosphere’. Bute seemed a bit nervous, and I’ve noticed that since his fights he’s a nervous fighter. James DeGale travels to Quebec City to make the first defence of his IBF world super-middleweight title. Dan Mullan/Getty Images
“Bute keeps going on about his home crowd and how he has never lost in Quebec City and it’s like he’s trying to get confidence. I’m easy, I’m going over there and I’m chilled.
“The way I’m feeling, I’d say this fight will be over in six rounds but you never know.
“It could be tricky against Bute, he’s very experienced, he knows how to fiddle a fight and that’s what I can’t let him do. I can’t let him get in his rhythm, give him his space.”
DeGale, the 2008 Olympic gold medallist at middleweight, hopes beating Bute will set up a money-spinning world title unification clash with WBC champion Badou Jack, who out-pointed DeGale’s bitter British rival George Groves in September, in Las Vegas next year.
Like DeGale, Vegas-based Swede Jack is managed by American Al Haymon.
“I know British fans would travel to Las Vegas to see my fight over there and that’s what I’m really hoping for,” DeGale said. “One of my dreams is to see my name in lights in Las Vegas.
“Badou Jack is based in Las Vegas, signed to Al Haymon and it would be so easy to make and we’d have the IBF and WBC belts on the line.
“That is the dream fight and it’s the one I’m pushing Al Haymon for. I’m saying, ‘Please, make it next’. He’s saying, ‘Don’t you want Julio Cesar Chavez Jr next? No, I want Jack next.”
