BoxRec

I must admit I was truly shocked when I saw this result yesterday. You almost never see upsets this big. James Degale was the #1 Super Middleweight in the eyes of most coming in, #2 at worst, and Caleb Truax I would imagine wasn't in anybody's Top 20. Possibly not even the Top 30.

What a shocker!

I don't recall a bigger upset happening in recent years.

This was a fight that was being laughed off as a pathetic defense for Degale, and a joke that he was even wasting his time fighting this guy...and he loses.

Upset of the Year for sure at the least.

I make you right, nothing is jumping out as a bigger upset to me in recent years.
Definitely upset of the year!

The more embarrassing thing is they scanned the IBF rankings - Truax was lowest rated to get sanctioned at Number 15.

Prescott vs Khan

Good point. I the UNDERpriced bookies you could get 1.01 on Degale and 19.0 on Truax

I know where you are coming from but when has Degale ever looked convincing at top level ?

He has performance last night was the shocking thing and I think he is not a fully fit fighter by any stretch of the imagination.

His body is telling him he needs to jack it in .

Degale was 1/200 on b365 before the fight.

It has to go down as the biggest upset in british boxing history.

I wonder what the odds were for Gomez vs Arthur? I know that practically everyone expected Arthur to win that and that was a pretty big upset.

Good thread.

TheLeprechaun wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 17:31 Degale was 1/200 on b365 before the fight.

It has to go down as the biggest upset in british boxing history.

I wonder what the odds were for Gomez vs Arthur? I know that practically everyone expected Arthur to win that and that was a pretty big upset.

Good thread.

I agree on everything here

Other big U.K. upsets: Christie-Seys, Prescott-Khan,Anne Smith-Bruno?!?.... any Peter Buckley Win!!!

Boxing Prospect wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 16:54 Prescott vs Khan

I don't think that was an upset tbh, it was bad management, Khan had looked vulnerable before and what did they do, threw him in with a fighter they new nothing about with a 90% plus KO record.

Boxing Prospect wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 16:54 Prescott vs Khan

Prescott was 8 / 1 to win that fight. Also, Khan had been dropped in his previous fight by Michael Gomez and Prescott was coming in as the knockout artist with nothing to lose against the hometown fighter.

Very big upset that's for sure

Props to Truax

DeGale should be beating fighters like Truax though

DeGales done, I don't usually agree with anything CEJ says but he is right in what he tweeted the other day, shameful, embarrassing performance after the way he went on

TheLeprechaun wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 17:31 Degale was 1/200 on b365 before the fight.

It has to go down as the biggest upset in british boxing history.

I wonder what the odds were for Gomez vs Arthur? I know that practically everyone expected Arthur to win that and that was a pretty big upset.

Good thread.

That's a crazy price. Sam Eggington was recently beaten quite handily by the French lad he was as short as 1/12 I remember. Not comparing that with Degale but as the old cliche goes "Anything can happen" etc..

brian13 wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 18:06

Boxing Prospect wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 16:54 Prescott vs Khan

Prescott was 8 / 1 to win that fight. Also, Khan had been dropped in his previous fight by Michael Gomez and Prescott was coming in as the knockout artist with nothing to lose against the hometown fighter.

Khan went off at 1.08 on betfair.

Degale went off at 1.04 last night

Honeyghan v Vaca 1 was a big upset, maybe not as big as last night but it is up there as an upset on British soil.

Lewis McCall?

In some ways it was a huge upset, but on the other hand I bet not many people were particularly surprised by it either.

DeGale has been an accident waiting to happen for a few years now; obviously no-one was predicting him to lose last night, but equally no-one can say that defeat wasn’t coming. The most surprising thing was that the scorecards were fair.

Avtandil Khurtsidze and Tommy Langford this year was a biggie. DeGale takes the cake though.
Upsets are based on people's perceptions and sometimes not enough is known about a fighter or how they have been working prior to the fight.

In terms of the title at stake and the weight class, I can't think of anything bigger off the top of my head anyway.

Maybe it was too much to expect from Degale after such a long lay off, Truax had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Degale had everything to lose : On home soil, his title, just coming off injury after having one of the biggest bouts of his career before against Badou Jack.

maybe he should have vacated the title while he was injured , all things said and done though: well done to Truax all the same for winning, really did put the effort in on the night.

KiwiRider wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 19:30 Avtandil Khurtsidze and Tommy Langford this year was a biggie. DeGale takes the cake though.
Upsets are based on people's perceptions and sometimes not enough is known about a fighter or how they have been working prior to the fight.

khurtsidze over langford wasnt a big upset at all. khurtsidze shouldve been a clear favourite.langford barely beat sam sheedy right before and khurtidze was legit top 15 in the world.dont know how ppl could have that much confidence in langford beating him.

KiwiRider wrote: ↑10 Dec 2017, 19:30 Avtandil Khurtsidze and Tommy Langford this year was a biggie. DeGale takes the cake though.
Upsets are based on people's perceptions and sometimes not enough is known about a fighter or how they have been working prior to the fight.

From memory they were around 10/11 and 5/4 odds wise - bookies had that real 50/50. Khurtsidze in hindsight had fought level above and looked a level above Langford.

Upset when looking at the odds yep. Upset when you look at bare facts of Degale arguably top two in the division and Truax low ranking, defeats showing his level etc. BUT not really that much of a surprise that Degale tripped up tbh. He always under performs, we have all sat and slated him for being lacklustre, making hard work of seemingly easy fights, labouring, taking rounds off and being a little bit lazy.

I do not ever think something is really an "upset" when the losing guy is someone who looks poor in fights previously and just looks an accident waiting to happen.

tobyh5 wrote: ↑11 Dec 2017, 02:34 Upset when looking at the odds yep. Upset when you look at bare facts of Degale arguably top two in the division and Truax low ranking, defeats showing his level etc. BUT not really that much of a surprise that Degale tripped up tbh. He always under performs, we have all sat and slated him for being lacklustre, making hard work of seemingly easy fights, labouring, taking rounds off and being a little bit lazy.

I do not ever think something is really an "upset" when the losing guy is someone who looks poor in fights previously and just looks an accident waiting to happen.

But if you're not looking great, but still not losing, against the likes of Dirrell and Jack then you really should be beating Truax.

You may be right in the sense that DeGale is done and would have been badly exposed against someone like Groves or Eubank, but you'd expect both of them to beat Truax without any bother.

Cleverly getting walloped by Kovalev was a shock to a lot of people for some reason.

samwbr wrote: ↑11 Dec 2017, 04:26 Cleverly getting walloped by Kovalev was a shock to a lot of people for some reason.

Not to anyone who knew anything about Kovalev

DeGale.

He spent the whole fight having a love affair with the ropes.