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James DeGale: The latest in a long line of inevitable disappointment for British boxers

James Degale (left) in action against Caleb Truax during their IBF World Super-Middleweight championship bout
James Degale (left) in action against Caleb Truax during their IBF World Super-Middleweight championship bout

There’s been a lot of headlines, comments and tweets about the “shock” defeat suffered by James DeGale at the hands of Caleb Truax at the Copper Box on Saturday night, a result that cost ‘Chunky’ his IBF super-middleweight crown.

Unfortunately, much of that “shock” came courtesy of excessively long odds on the Minnesota underdog as well as the usual partisan British boxing production routine.

READ MORE: James DeGale stunned by Caleb Truax

The truth is that DeGale is one of many good-but-not-elite British talents who, for whatever reason, spends several fights looking well short of their full potential.

We’ve seen men like Kevin Mitchell, Ricky Burns, Dereck Chisora, Nathan Cleverly, David Haye and more presented by their promoters as if they are the sport’s next big thing. Not only were they not, but there was a steady advent of failures to convince between the ropes that came before the big loss formally sent them back to the drawing board.

Promoters are supposed to hype their charges, of course. But less can sometimes be more. And when you talk someone up too much, it makes any setbacks far more damaging than they could and should have been.

Frank Warren was at least honest enough to admit after the fight that Truax had outworked the out-of-sorts favourite on the night, and had done enough to take the strap. But the lack of communication between the money men like Frank and the members of DeGale’s team on the ground floor, in the gym with the boxer day-in and day-out, was as evident on Saturday as it is whenever a Brit flatters to deceive.

A shoulder injury over the summer no doubt didn’t help matters, and DeGale admitted after the fight: “If I’m honest, I probably rushed back.

“I got an operation in June and maybe that was a bit too early to come back but I have to sort things out and I want the rematch.”

That doesn’t change the fact, however, that DeGale hadn’t stepped up to the next level after finally claiming his maiden world championship against Andre Dirrell in May 2015.

His subsequent defences didn’t have the masses convinced he would come out on top of divisional unification bouts or even big domestic superfights with the likes of Chris Eubank Jr and, in what would be a rematch from his first pro defeat, his old rival George Groves. And the draw against Badou Jack in January was a strong indication of DeGale’s ceiling.

Few expected the next loss to come on Saturday against someone like Truax, but most expected it to come. It’s down to DeGale, his team and his promoter that it came before the serious money could be maximised.

That scenario wasn’t lost on Caleb, who announced after his victory that he plans to leap onto the bigger bouts DeGale likely had coming his way before the banana skin.

“All week all I heard was who he’s going to fight next,” the American explained. “Well guess what? Those fights are mine now.”

“I want to thank everyone for the opportunity,” he continued.

“We noticed that he didn’t pressure that much, he’s a helluva boxer, a classy boxer, I couldn’t box because he’s a better boxer than me but I had to make it into a dogfight and that’s what I did.”