DeGale Confirms Fight with Davis as he Targets World Title Opportunity

James DeGale has confirmed that he will return to the ring on 16 November at Glow, Bluewater, to face American Dyah Davis.

The 27 year old from London has fought just twice this year as he stopped Sebastien Demers in two rounds back in May and less than one month later secured another impressive victory over Stjepan Bozic.

Having seen his bitter rival George Groves - the only man to defeat DeGale - secure a bout with WBA and IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch, the 2008 Olympic gold medallist is keen to earn his first world title shot.

But first he must safely come through his next test against Davis who has lost just three of his 26 professional fights, one of which came against current WBC champion Sakio Bika.

"I see Davis as a really good test and I want to get in there and stick on a great performance for all the fans and do a good job on him," DeGale told the Mirror.

"I'm going to go in there full of confidence. I'm going to be super fit and I'm basically going to go in there and try and get him out of there.

"I know I'm only a couple of fights away from a world title, so I want to go in there and do a good job on him.

"But that said, I'm not looking past him. I give everyone I face respect and this is no different."

Davis, the son of 1976 Olympic gold medallist Howard Davis Jr, will be a stern test for DeGale as he was only stopped in the tenth round against Bika who has shared the ring with some of the best super middleweight sin the world.

Should DeGale emerge from the fight with a convincing victory then it may well set him up for a shot at Bika's WBC crown some time next year.

"For me he's obviously a world class, US super middleweight," promoter Mick Hennessy told the Daily Mail. "I think it's good for James to face that style of fighter at this stage of his career, to prepare him for the very best he'll face.

"It's a good gauge on the Bika fight, to see how James compares against that. James is very, very close to a world title fight. There's potential for the winner of Froch versus Groves, or Andre Ward.

"But we'll look to take the fight that we think is the right one."