By Scott Gilfoid: James DeGale (10-1, 8 KO’s) is ready to put some distance between him and his last defeat against George Groves last May by going after European Boxing Union (EBU) super middleweight champion Piotr Wilczewski (29-1, 10 KO’s) on September 17th in what should be an easy schooling for the talented DeGale in London.

Wilczewski, 32, has no power and isn’t anywhere near the class of DeGale. He’ll likely have studied the Groves/Adam Booth blueprint in how to fight DeGale and try and move a lot and fight in the hit and runner manner. That won’t work I’m afraid. DeGale watched Wladimir Klitschko expose how to beat Booth’s simple fighting strategy in Wladimir’s win over David Haye. DeGale will be applying constant pressure, using his jab a lot and cutting off the ring to force Wilczewski to fight.

DeGale still doesn’t acknowledge the Groves fight as a defeat, and believes he should have won the fight. He does realize, however, that he didn’t fight the right game plan and instead should have put a lot more pressure from Groves from round one and showed him zero respect. I agree with DeGale. He won that fight, and it’s sad that the crowd were screaming their lungs out cheering for Groves. But DeGale learned an important lesson in that fight and he won’t forget it in future bouts. DeGale will go after all of his opponents from the word go, cut off the ring and throw combinations.

If he DeGale does fight Groves in the future it will be more of a case of DeGale doing Groves a favor, as DeGale will soon be a world champion and Groves will find himself needing a title shot. DeGale may or may not decide to throw him a bone and give Groves a chance. I’m against it, because Groves refused to give DeGale an immediate rematch, so it’s only fair that DeGale ignore Groves.