James DeGale - what's his deal?

I ****ing loved Small's. He was just like Craig David in the Rewind video, it was amazing.

I was like "wait... what?" when he said something about racism though, absolutely classic.

 

Yeah I have to say I like the boy I first talked to him after the birmingham fight

hes a good lad and he doesnt deserve the stick hes improved with each fight.

I definately want to see him do well but i still want sutherland to knock him spark out!

 

After watching sutherland and watching degale in the pros I think it will be an uncompetive win for Degale

 

I've been saying to my friends recently that I think he will go very far, the fight on the Khan under card only re enforced my view of the lad. I don't know what it is but I really like his style, even the first fight I enjoyed watching him.

 

My problem is as follows. He doesn't look like he be able to get away with some of his footwork and 'amateur' shots against a decent fighter who isn't there for the money. Someone who has aspirations of his own could well do him some damage. It is early days though so there is plenty of time to iron these habits out. His attitude doesn't help things but then when you have pricks like C******e and E****k saying he'll fail before he's even made his pro debut then I suppose he has every right to think to himself "****'em I'll do and say what I want"

Oh yeah one more think that wont help him is the fact that before the Olympics he'd fought and lost to Sutherland 4/5 times (I think) so he'll defo have to beat him someway along the lines if he's to win fans over.

 

Can't argue with any of that, there is also the fact that we have been burned by former Olympic champions (Fraudley mainly but Amir to an extent) where people are sceptical about them.

However I think he has adapted well to the pro game after a nervous start, he seems to show a lot more improvement then the others between fights, from 1 - 2, 2 - 3, seems a class apart from each of the last fights. He's no world champion as of yet for as you said the foot work is still quite amateurish but I also noticed him finding the gaps and the work to the body was quite unexpected but excellently executed. It was against a fairly average fighter he was always beating but I was impressed by the accuracy, power and speed of his hands.

Plus I always seem to route for the one everyone wants to fail, all my friends hate Amir and I love the guy (only since his defeat to Prescott mind you). Also like Joe Calazaghe/Bernard Hopkin's and Lennox Lewis who all had a lot of detractors, it is usually forgotten in time as it has been with Lewis pretty much.

 

He looks to have improved already.

I said after his previous two fights that he really needed to tighten up on his punches, even with the quick ko last time out he was too looping with his shots. His work, to me, did look tighter so credit for that.

I hope Chunky does well. I don't think he's as much of a big mouth as made out.

 

Golden Chunky is definitely an.....original nickname.

 

Is that something to do with black and white pepper.

 

He looks good but I'll wait to see how he reacts when he gets tagged clean on the face.

 

He is the most talented out of all the "olympians" for me but he is also the least developed. I think he needs to be really active and keep fighting guys of this level another 3 or 4 times over a short period, he still looks pretty amateurish in a lot of respects. He is benefiting the most from these easy fights for me, the others should move it up a bit now.

 

The problem with Degale is when he begins to believe his own hype. He loses concentration or his head gets turned, doesn't train fully, posers here and there. On his day Degale could beat anyone in the ameaturs the question is which Degale would turn up.
I remember watching him once in Brent Cross and I was super impressed. He was up against a banger the dude gave him a standing 8 count(one that wasn't deserved) Degale roared back and ended up stopping the guy.

He needs a coach who'll be frank with him and keep him focused aka Terry Edwards. A prime example was when Terry slapped him in the ameaturs because he lost focus when the cuban bit him. Another example is in the commonwealth when the Australian beat him. The guy got under his skin...Degale lost his cool and ended up swinging all over and ended up getting disqualified.

But to be honest it seems Degale knows his own weakness and from what I know/seen his current coach is a hard tactitioner. He looks like he'll keep him focused. Thats all Degale needs. I think his personality is a bit like Marmite you either love him or hate him. But seems when he's calm he's got his gob more in check. But maybe that will come with age. The good thing at least is that he does respond to critism :good

 

Racist ****.

 

Bored - :rofl:

 

Whats a "racial condiment"?