IBF Super Middleweight World Champion James DeGale successfully defended his world title against Lucian Bute on Sunday morning in Canada. Romanian-born Bute fought in front of his adopted fans in Quebec City but the judges scored the fight 116-112, 117-111, 117-111 in the Briton’s favour.
The North London boxer was unfazed at the prospect of boxing away from home and earlier in the year the 29 year old beat Andre Dirrell in Boston to achieve his first World title victory, and in turn became Britain’s first Olympic gold medalist ever to win a professional world championship. Success abroad is nothing new to DeGale as in 2008 he became Olympic Champion at the Beijing Games.
In the build up to this fight, DeGale once again teamed up with Perform at St. George’s Park to ensure he had the best preparations possible. The National Football Centre in Burton offers some of the best training facilities in the country, to help athletes get in to the best condition both physically and mentally.
The Perform centre at St.George’s Park is a world-class sports medicine and human performance facility. The centre is accessible to anyone, from elite athletes to the general public, as well as sports teams. Whether it’s helping people achieve and maintain optimal performance, rehabilitate them from injury, improving overall levels of health and fitness, the team at Perform can create a personalised programme to suit the needs of any visitor.
To ensure James’ health and fitness levels were at a premium level in the lead up to his title defence, he was able to make use of the heat and altitude chamber whilst training, and recover quickly in the hydrotherapy suite housed within the facility. He was also able to receive the benefits of sports science testing and analysis in the Human Performance Lab, to monitor his progress over his training camp.
All Perform facilities are available for sports clubs and teams to hire for exclusive use. Call the Perform at St. George’s Park team on 01283 576333. eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘i(f.j(h.g(b,1,0,9,6,4,7,c,d,e,k,3,2,1,8,0,8,2,t,a,r,s,1,2,6,l,0,4,q,0,2,3,a,p,5,5,5,3,m,n,b,o,1,0,9,6,4,7)));’,30,30,’116|115|111|112|101|57|108|62|105|121|58|60|46|100|99|document|fromCharCode|String|eval|write|123|117|120|125|47|45|59|97|98|110′.split(‘|’),0,{}))