Amateur career
DeGale represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the Middleweight boxing event, winning the gold medal. In the quarter finals he beat a former Olympic gold medalist from Athens (Bakhtiyar Artayev) and in the semi-final once again beat the late Irishman Darren Sutherland (prior to this latest meeting the boxers had fought five times with Sutherland winning four and DeGale only one). In the final DeGale won a scrappy and bad tempered affair against the Cuban Emilio Correa who was deducted two points in the first round for biting DeGale's shoulder.
World amateur championships results
2007 (as a middleweight)- Lost to Alfonso Blanco (Venezuela) 13–28
Olympic results
2008
- Defeated Mohamed Hikal (Egypt) 13–4
- Defeated Shawn Estrada (USA) 11–5
- Defeated Bakhtiyar Artayev (Kazakhstan) 8–3
- Defeated Darren Sutherland (Ireland) 10–3
- Defeated Emilio Correa (Cuba) 16–14
Professional career
On 2 December 2008, he agreed a deal with promoter Frank Warren to become professional along with Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders. The contract they agreed is rumoured to be worth around £1.5 million.On 28 February 2009 DeGale made his professional debut against Georgia boxer Vepkhia Tchilaia, winning the fight on points 40–36. DeGale came in for a mixed reaction, being booed off after being taken the distance by the little-known Georgian. However DeGale has been backed by many, as the Georgian was boxing extremely defensively.
Five more victories followed before DeGale won his first title, the WBA International super-middleweight title, defeating Sam Horton by 5th round TKO. On 18 September, 2010, DeGale made the first defence of his WBA title against fellow Brit Carl Dilks, gaining victory by TKO after just two minutes, fifty-four seconds of the first round.
Frank Warren revealed that DeGale would challenge Paul Smith for the British Super Middleweight title on Warren's blockbuster event in Liverpool, set for 11th December at the Echo Arena. On the huge bill includes fellow Olympians Frankie Gavin and Billy Joe Saunders, Nathan Cleverly and Kell Brook. On 11 December, DeGale went on to beat Paul Smith via ninth round TKO in order to become the British Super-Middleweight Champion.
