Boxing News 24/7 Petra Kirsch – Gelsenkirchen
Making his first fistic appearance in the current calendar year, a sharp James DeGale boxed like he had been out of the ring for only six weeks, rather than six months as the Londoner coasted to a straight-forward fourth round knockout victory having floored EBU super middleweight title challenger Cristian Sanavia four times. DeGale, 11 years Sanavia’s junior at 26, triumphed at the Arena Nord, Frederikshavn in Denmark on Saturday, April 21.
Kirsch’s scorecard
| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Sanavia |
9 | 9 | 9 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
– | – |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeGale |
10 | 10 | 10 |
10 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Official verdict: DeGale by way of fourth round KO.
Utilising his height and reach advantages, DeGale began the EBU title fight at super middleweight by triple-jabbing the shorter, stockier Sanavia from range. He relinquished control of the centre of the ring to the Italian challenger as he swanned around the ropes. When Sanavia pressured, DeGale blocked the punches with his wrists, forearms and gloves as he employed a rigid Philly-shell guard. Switch-hitting comfortably, DeGale showed stellar technical skills in the opening round and easily gained the ten, reducing Cristian to nine.
In the second round, Sanavia achieved success with a left hand that forced DeGale into a clinch. Any crude pressure Sanavia exerted was effectively negated by DeGale’s exquisite movement and the way he threw his shots… uppercuts were launched and landed with precision and, for the most part, high gloves protecting his temples provided a cushion from incoming hook punches. A sharp shooter, DeGale boasted good boxing ability and shot selection with a plethora of his subsequent shots in the third all coming after the jab and double jab – both orthodox and southpaw.
A 37-year-old veteran with 51 professional fights and 341 rounds behind him, Sanavia was breathing heavily between the third and fourth rounds; a sign he may have been uncomfortable with the tempo of the contest. Midway through the round, Sanavia suffered three successive flash knockdowns as DeGale changed into a higher gear. With 14 seconds left on the clock, DeGale finished the job early with a left hook to the side of Sanavia’s body as the Italian dropped to the canvas a fourth and final time.
Whilst DeGale does not possess pure one punch knockout power, what he does have is an undeniable ability to string punches together with ease and put seats on the canvas via accumulative punch power – which is exactly what happened to Sanavia. With the victory, DeGale saw his record jump up to 12-1-0, 9ko and make a successful first defence of the EBU super middleweight championship title he won when he majority decisioned Piotr Wilczewski in a tough 12 rounder.
Sanavia dropped down to 45-6-1, 13ko.
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On The Beak 
Good performance but we learn nothing
If you attack degale straight on he will take you apart, we need see him vs someone who back off like groves did
They should make degale vs pavlik, Kelly still got name, but styles make fights, and pavlik even at best was straight line forward, straight line back
Degale would ruin him