Remember what Chris Eubank said about DeGale in 2009?

:good

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-awwVp03T4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-awwVp03T4[/ame]

 

The dark lord works in mysterious ways. Christ Eubank, mind controlled, who would have thunk it?

 

People need to shut the **** up and get a grip.

He lost a majority decision, okay? A lot of people had Degale or at worst, a draw, so stop talking like it's the end of the ****ing world. He was up against his rival, and he was so confident he even made me a believer. Groves arguably wanted it more than Degale, plus he was coming in to the fight knowing he'd beaten him and how he could beat him, without the arrogance and with the crowd behind him. You look at Degale when that fight starts and he does not look at all confident compared to Groves. You can't say the crowd has no effect.

Groves had his number, man. Degale could beat him, but he didn't. I had it to Degale by a round or a draw, but all this bull**** about "Degale needs a new trainer, Degale needs to go to america". He doesn't need any of that. What he needs to do is focus and realise the only thing stopping him is his ego. He needs to get over this one and fight on, because if they both succeed, there's no way the fight won't happen a few years down the line when it matters more.

And you should never fight for your zero. Never.

 

People are chatting such ****. DeGale came in shape and he came to fight. He was trying to push the fight, trade and look for the knockout. He took some quality shots. Nothing suggets his mind is weak etc Groves and DeGale put forth their strategies and one lost a technical battle. Its as simple as that.

 

this will be the biggest test.

hanging around with warren and acting like a cocky twat won't get him much further in the game than this.

 

DeGale put a lot of his ego on the line with that fight.

It is the type of fight that could break his spirit, mentality, his self belief, his desire to dominate.

That 'upset' has all the makings of an Audley Harrison style decline from grace.

Amir Khan showed how to put it to the back of your mind. But Amir Khan is a much tougher top quality fighter than fans give him credit for.

DeGale basically needs to grow up and work hard if he wants to be a true success in boxing. If he doesn't end up more of a success in boxing than George Groves then he will have failed his talent and failed in life.

 

You shouldn't, but lots of people do.

Many fighters aren't the same after losing, though that can often depend on why they've lost.

Have they lost because they were past it, or lost because someone was better than them and they couldn't deal with it?

Fighters that were unaffected/better after a loss....

Leonard
Hagler
Hearns
Lewis
Holyfield
Pacquiao
Barrera
Morales

Fighters that were never the same/ruined.....

Mosley
Forrest
Trinidad
Pavlik
Cotto
Hatton
Vargas
DLH

Or you've got fighters like Mayweather that think they're the GOAT because they've never lost. Never put themselves in the firing line either.

All great athletes lose, in any sport. It's a fact of life. The challenge is how you pick yourself up and go back in again.

 

Spot on. Dont rate either but Khan has very good basic skills and technique. Plus whatever and whoever he has fought the man had a wba strap. Degales technique is ****ing terrible, cant even punch properly or cut the ring off.

 

I interviewed Eubank last year and his words about Degale were

"“Degale should listen to the one person who thinks he will end up being a failure in boxing, me. He should take the advice that would be the easy part, the hard part is to apply it and otherwise he will end up like the other men who wanted to be! I'm only reading his body movement and personality and it’s plain to see. Desire is folly without application” "

 

....No? Those aren't fighters that went on a downslide because they lost their 0, those are ones that had tough losses or are incorrect.

Mosley wasn't ruined at all,
I don't know of Forrest,
Trinidad was schooled by Hopkins but that one's possible,
Pavlik got schooled by Hopkins too and with the alcohol and such you may have a point there,
Cotto was destroyed by Margarito, he quit. It had nothing to do with the zero.
Arguably, Hatton was past his prime in the Mayweather fight, or just way out of his league. Still, the loss did affect his future gameplans so this one is fair.
Vargas was just in tough fights
And De La Hoya, I wouldn't know.

If you want to look at someone who crumbled when they lost their 0, look at Naz. Most of these are fighters that got beaten up pretty badly. Degale didn't get that, he was just unfortunate to be on the losing end of a close fight.

 

Those saying degale doesn't need any stick and they are not any issues with his team be ause he lost a very very close fight need to have a reality check.

Yes, it was a close fight, and I scored it a draw - but remember the **** degales team came out with before the fight and their arrogance and clearly lack of preparation or even a gameplan for "mr technical" shows there are big problems with his current setup.

And the ego thing that eubank mentions is true. It's a shame that most people in boxing who knew the fighters also were jumping on the bandwagon and had degale a massive favourite. Ad maybe with his skills and ability he should have beat him - now that he lost questions need to be asked as to why? Given that he was such a hot favourite?

IMO groves was spot on when he called nelson up on the ego massaging that was going on. And that's was his trainer is constantly doing. And this is the point of this thread, Eubanks read the situation well when he said - all this ego massaging, and you will KO him in 4 rounds , and I'm getting paid more, is all bad for a boxers hunger.

Fair enough if you've established yourself at the top and talk like that, problem is you've got raw emerging unproven talent talking like that because of the reason eubank mentioned. Thats the real problem. Yes, the fight could've gone either way, but because of his attitude of btw him and his team, he didn't backup his potential while the other guy did.

 

Excatly....

This defeat has put him back a few months at worse...

If Groves vacates the British title then there is no-one else out there who can beat Degale at domestic level. If Groves doesn't vacate then he, Degale, will be simply put into a "continental" strap match and retain his World ranking...

I wish people would stop being obssessed with defeats.

 

It wasn't that he was defeated, but the manner of his defeat. Fair enough, he didn't get Prescotted, but he was out-fought and out-thought by Groves who is generally recognised as the less 'talented' of the two. When boxers are not performing to their maximum ability at this early point in their career, you have to question their hunger and motivation. I don't necessarily buy into the money=lack of hunger theory as there are far too many elite fighters out there that have money in the bank and still perform (and obviously have the hunger), but then there are those that clearly lose all motivation when they have a healthy bank balance and DeGale is looking more like the latter type than the former, or maybe somewhere in between.

It's almost like DeGale and his team thought he just had to turn up and his skills would do the rest.

 

Eubank knows the game of being the villain and drawing a crowd to come out and see you lose. He was much better at it though, because he strung that question out so long by winning time and again, and in the end turning the crowd to him.

DeGales problem is of course losing the first big one (from a media interest point of view) and whilst he does have the opportunity to win the crowd back with some humility, it doesnt appear that will be his path of choice.

Where it will really go wrong is if he loses again, shortly. Then what are people coming out to see? :think