Is Degale the man now ?

No Ward is still the man even with his self imposed absence. Nothing I saw last night makes me think he could beat Ward or even Froch.

DeGale's performance was far from perfect. While he showed an excellent jab, upper body movement, judgement of distance and even good power his stamina and work rate suggest his time as a title holder may not be a long one.

DeGale only threw 400 punches last night, that's only a mere 33 punches a round, anyone he can't stop or drop may just outwork him.

If I was Froch and if the money was right I'd be tempted to take the fight because it would be an easy payday. Can you imagine how DeGale would do with an oncoming Froch in the 2nd half of a fight? Wouldn't be pretty.

 

When Froch retires, it's between him and Groves. And no Dirrell did not beat Froch.

 

Degale has claim

 

I don't think we'll actually see Ward back at SMW. If a fighter says he doubts still being able to make the weight, and then fights his comeback a division higher you know what's up. And Froch is all but retired, maybe coming back to get retired by Golovkin.
So DeGale might actually be the man at SMW now.

 

If Ward moves up to Light Heavyweight I think he's the best at Super Middle right now.

 

UM NO.

How could he be the man when Dirrell won.

 

DeGale even said he and Dirrell are below Ward.

 

DeGale has a lot to learn and do yet

 

Not even close. Without the knockdowns he lost the fight. He wasn't impressive IMO, too much movement and reluctant to engage. Dirrell didn't look to have the same explosiveness and reflexes he has shown in the past but he was more consistent and made the fight. Even with the knockdowns you can make a case for Dirrell winning. And I'd pick Dirrell to win a rematch, it looked like he had DeGale figured out.

 

2009/2010 Dirrel would've beaten DeGale handily to be honest. Froch fought a better Dirrell back then, let's not kid ourselves.

 

I believe Ward is done with SMW, which is a shame. Froch just wants a career ending money fight and has no interest in a DeGale bout. So between last night's win and looking at the rest of the ranked fighters, he pretty much is. For how long is another matter entirely.

 

Yeah he pretty much is. Ward hasn't fought a top smw since Froch in 2011. Froch hasn't fought in over a year. DeGale is the only one to do anything meaningful recently.

 

Ward is the man.

Degale is too flawed.


The way he cruised for 5 rounds doing literally NOTHING...only secured the fight by winning the 12th round.

His left hand barely landed all night long apart from the one overhand left he managed to drop Dirrel with. He stopped using his jab halfway through the fight...

Back to that left hand...it's way too telegraphed and looping...Dirrel has a good chance to win a rematch...I mean Degale won by 1 point.

Lets see a Groves Degale rematch maybe? To be honest I think all three of them are quite evenly matches (Degale, Groves Dirrel).

Groves looked exceptional when he was schooling Froch for 6 rounds in their first fight...but apart from them 6 rounds he doesn't seem to be able to finish strong...same for Degale.

All three of them need to find another step in their game.