James Degale sudden decline

Saying bad judges cost him against Groves and Jack

 

Drink and drugs ?

 

Groves -the commentator JimWatt scored it Degale winning it by 2 points, as did Frank Warren and as did I.

Jack - was very much disputed. I had Degale winning by two points but there were a couple of close rounds,. I still thought Degale should of had his hand raised despite the fight being more difficult to judge than the Groves fight.

 

Yeah?

 

Deluded.

 

What drugs are we talking..

 

Cocaine. Probably the drug which made him fight arg off Towie, unless that’s something you’d do normally??

 

Bit of the old marching powder.

 

I would say quite a hard resume for an average champion took its toll, combined with poor longevity/attitude. Hie resume pre-Truax was unbroken world class. Some people can maintain their standards at that level or above (eg Froch, Ward) for B+ fighter after B after B+ after A-...but for others a toll is paid in mileage, or they flee the division after their one good win in ages to avoid defeats.

 

No one believes DeGale was robbed in either of those fights. No one apart from you.

 

Exactly.

Degale had flaws right from the start of his pro career, which made for punishing fights even when he won them.

All it took was a slight drop in dedication, fitness or youth and these flaws dragged him to the bottom and drowned him.

Last night he came to strictly survive and had the ref not been bought and paid for, he would have been KO'd or DQ'd for his disgraceful refusal to engage.

 

Watch the fight on youtube - Jim Watt reckons so. Watch the Warren interview about the fight as he reckons Deagle won it to.

Plenty peope debated Jack fight. Some for Degale some draw and others for Jack.

 

A fight decided by two rounds isn't a robbery

 

(First ever post)

In my opinion, Degale never really captured the love of the UK Boxing public. An awkward, mostly unattractive style and prickly and yes … often arrogant to the point of being toxic … attitude haven't helped.

Whereas Groves had the whole cheeky humour and articulate persona, and even Froch's pathological narcissism inspired the odd unintentional laugh, Degale never seemed to win the hearts and minds of the public.

And his career is very up and down. Olympic Gold was a fine achievement, then a narrow defeat to Groves set him back an entire 3 years before he finally put himself back into a contention of sorts winning on (of all things) the Froch Groves II undercard. Beating the lesser Dirrell away is very decent but not-career defining stuff. His moment in the Sun was probably getting a very respectable draw away to Jack; but as Groves and others have subsequently said, it was a severe decline after that with his physical faculties clearly damaged beyond repair, and the defeat to Truax was a nadir that many saw coming for a fighter that just seems to phone-in his performances for most of the rounds in a given fight.

He will go down as a very good British fighter given his achievements, but I don't think many hearts will be broken with his vanishing off the scene.