Most of you know I hate the guy. But for the purposes of this thread, I want to look at him as a fighter. Last night he narrowly defeated Piotr Wilczewski for the European title at 168. Here's what I think we saw last night: 1 - James is far away from world level: all talk of his talents and potential needs to stop. He was lucky to get the win last night. Trying to accentuate the positives about his chin and his heart is yet more fuel to the car-crash his career will soon become. 2 - He's not got the best chin: Piotr is no puncher, but he stung James four or five times and badly staggered him once. Even against mid-level opposition he could be getting badly hurt. 3 - He still can't punch properly: anything to the head (bar a couple of nice uppercuts) was a cuffing slap. His body work was better. Either he has hand problems or he's just bad fundamentally. 4 - He is very fast, but he doesn't apply it well: he tends to overwhelm with volume rather than use his fast hands to land accurately. Last night, against a guy with decent defence, he looked ineffective for the most part. 5 - The footwork, oh FFS, THE FOOTWORK: he was constantly walking into shots, getting out of position, or just lunging in. 6 - He is overly negative: when he's unsure of the best approach, he wanders around the ring, throwing very little. He's gotten away with this so far, but better guys will take advantage of his uncertainty. 7 - He seems to struggle with anyone who asserts themselves: Piotr used more pressure and DeGale did the same thing he did against Groves, stood there and looked clueless. He's been poorly schooled. 8 - He's just not ready for more: he maybe never will be. He needs a solid two years of development, with a new trainer, away from the "yes men" he has around him, and fighting fighters who will teach him new things.
that's admirable, but he scraped it. And this guy was blasted out by a very weak fighter called Curtis Stevens. Tell me what you think we now know about DeGale that suggests he's a future champion?
IMO This is exactly what DF's thread is about, yes he has had 12 fights but he is not what he is hyped to be. As previously stated in another thread he and his team have a lot to work on, as last night was far from the performances being spoke about from Degale and team. If degale and co think that was anywhere near convincing they are in danger of going nowhere career wise.
He's stagnated. The improvement just ain't there and like everyone keeps stressing, he needs to move on from his current set-up and start afresh, preferably in America where he'll get better sparring and perhaps be appreciated more for what he potentially can do. Yeah, it's no mean feat becoming European champion after 12 fights but there ain't anything there to suggest he'll move onto the next level. A complete re-evaluation of what he wants and where he's going is definitely needed and if he ain't prepared to make some hard decisions he'll never fulfill anything like the potential many of us saw in him from his amateur days.
Could've stopped there. :good I'm alot more of a fan of Degales than i used to be, but ****ing hell, him talking about Kessler is suicide right now IMO. Surely VVarren will see that and match him carefully for a good 3-5 fights at least. If Degale goes in with anyone who's a pressure fighter that can bang, its another Jacobs-Pirog waiting to happen.
Im going to give Degale a bit of credit in the way that he won, He showed heart and bottle to win a tough fight, can he go any further? Its possible but he need's a hell of a lot of work and IMHO needs a change of trainer, He's the type of boxer that dosen't know his own style and makes basic, basic mistakes, He needs ring iq and a trainer that isn't a cheerleader.
Iv not yet watched the fight but im absolutely beaming from ear toear reading these shocking reports. Degale is a tosser and cant wait to see him knocked out
Its his 12th fight seriously, the fact hes at this level already is impressive in itself. Personally I think hes Britains best prospect, good south paw style, decent chin, decent power. Y'all are just haters
I think Saunders is the best prospect in Britain. DeGale has a lot of talent but it will all go to waste if he sticks around with McDonnell. :rasta
Nah, definitely not a hater over here. Positive criticism is necessary and if his team had any balls they'd see things the same way. Either that or DeGale himself realizes he needs a complete change in direction to achieve what he potentially can. I've got high hopes for him, or did have, but if he continues on the road he's currently traveling, his career won't fulfill what was definitely possible. If he won't change his team, walk away from the yes men, he at the very least needs to slow the **** down and forget about belts and the like. Build his career slowly. There ain't no rush. Stay active, have quality sparring but don't try to sprint before you can barely manage a jog.
Looking at a fighters faults is not hating, Just like looking at fighters strengths is not being a nuthugger, (Laz excluded) It's called weighing everything up and having an opinion. :good