James DeGale marked his return to the ring with a winning start, outpointing Marcus Portman before the bout was waved off at the end of the fourth round following an accidental clash of heads. The 40 year old, fighting for the first time since his 2019 defeat to Chris Eubank Jr, headlined the inaugural card of a new promotion at The Halls in Wolverhampton on Saturday night, seven years on from his last appearance in a professional ring.
A winning end to seven years away
DeGale was ahead on the scorecards when the fight was stopped early, with the result going to the judges under the rules governing an accidental foul before the fourth round had finished. Portman, at 45, five years DeGale’s senior, gave the former world champion a competitive opening to his comeback rather than the mismatch some had expected on paper. It was enough, all the same, for DeGale to walk away from his first fight in over seven years with a win on the record rather than the manner of defeat that had persuaded him to retire back in February 2019.
DeGale had been open about what drove him back into the sport. “I can’t go out how I went out against Eubank,” he said in the build up to the fight. “I’ve stayed in shape, and after Floyd, I want to have one more in boxing.” The Eubank Jr defeat, a unanimous decision loss at the O2 Arena for the IBO super middleweight title, had stood as his last act in the sport since he announced his retirement that night, having already achieved his stated ambition of becoming the first British boxer to win Olympic gold and a professional world title.
Reign launches with DeGale as its headline act
The Portman fight headlined the launch card of Reign, a new series from Wolverhampton promoter Andy Sahota’s Showfighter outfit, built around mixing content creators, local prospects and former professionals on the same bill. The 14 bout card also featured a rematch of former British and Commonwealth champions Frankie Gavin and Steve Saville, while a bout between Joab Sneyd and James Stevens ended in disqualification after a headbutt.
Sahota, staging the event in his home city, was full of praise for how the night had gone. “It was a fantastic night and the atmosphere inside The Halls was electric,” he said. “Wolverhampton really turned up for us, and to launch Reign in my hometown and see the reaction from the crowd was something I’ll never forget.” He pointed too to the numbers watching at home, with the TalkSport Boxing stream of the card passing 200,000 views. “This was never intended to be a one off event, we’re building a series, and Saturday night showed us just how much potential Reign has. This is only the beginning.”
Crossover targets already on the table
DeGale had used the build up to his comeback to float a string of possible next opponents from outside conventional boxing circles, naming Jake Paul, Darren Till, Ty Mitchell, KSI and Tommy Fury as fighters he would be willing to face. None of those represent a confirmed matchup at this stage, and DeGale’s win over Portman looks more like the platform for those conversations than the product of them. What it does give him is a genuine win to point to, on a card whose promoter is already talking about further instalments, rather than a farewell defeat as the final line of his professional record.
For a fighter who once held a version of the world title at 168lbs and beat the likes of Lucian Bute and Andre Dirrell on his way there, a four round stoppage win over a fellow veteran is a modest addition to that resume on paper. But DeGale made clear months ago that this was never about padding out old achievements. It was about not letting Eubank Jr have the last word. Seven years and one accidental clash of heads later, he has that much settled.