Caleb Truax felt like an afterthought as he sat through the traditional prefight news conference a few days before his world title bout in London last week.
His opponent, England's James DeGale, was the star attraction. The former Olympic champion held the IBF supermiddleweight title and was fighting on his home turf.
DeGale was returning to the ring after an 11-month layoff because of injury. Truax was supposed to be a tune-up for DeGale, a chance to knock off some rust before moving on to bigger bouts.
"I was a long shot," said Truax, the pride of Osseo.
DeGale seemed to think so at their news conference.
"He was most definitely looking past me," Truax said. "He wasn't talking about the fight that was two days away. He was talking about who he's going to fight after he beats me. In boxing, you can't do that."
Asked how he reacted to that slight, Truax said he mostly smirked. He got the last laugh Saturday.
In an outcome that stunned the boxing world, Truax captured the world title by majority decision. One judge scored the fight a draw. That made Truax nervous that DeGale would benefit from home cooking. But the other two scorecards had Truax as the winner.