Warren will be backing DeGale’s when he fights Groves again

By Boxing News - 09/08/2011 - Comments

Image: Warren will be backing DeGale's when he fights Groves againBy Scott Gilfoid: British promoter Frank Warren is saying he’ll be backing the talented James DeGale when he fights George Groves again in the future. Warren recently added Groves to his promotional stable along with DeGale, making a rematch between DeGale and Groves almost inevitable.

Groves beat DeGale by a controversial 12 round decision last May in a fight that Warren thought that DeGale should have won. I’m in full agreement with Mr. Warren about that, as I had DeGale winning that fight by at least two rounds. But the fight shows how it’s bad thing to be disliked by boxing fans the way that DeGale has been since he turned pro.

Despite being the better talent, DeGale was booed all night long by fans in this fight while Groves received cheers for his every miss. Winning over boxing fans should be priority one for DeGale, so that he doesn’t have to fight in front of booing fans every time out.

Warren said this about DeGale and Groves: “If those two ever face each other again, there is no doubt that I will be firmly in DeGale’s corner…Like a lot of people at ringside, I thought DeGale beat Groves but the judges thought differently. I’m sure that if there is ever a rematch the record will be put straight.”

Yes, I totally agree with Mr. Warren. If there is a fight in the future, DeGale will win it because he knows what he did wrong the first time, and already had made adjustments to Groves’ running after the 5th round and pretty much completely dominated the second half of their fight. But in a rematch, DeGale would really go after Groves and force him to exchange with him. When the two fighters did trade with each other, DeGale was the stronger fighter and landed the harder shots.

DeGale faces EBU super middleweight champion Piotr Wilcewski on October 15th in a fight that will shoot DeGale up the super middleweight rankings after he beats the Polish fighter. Groves still doesn’t have a fight planned, and is ranked below DeGale in the world rankings despite having beaten him. The reason for this is simple: 1. Many boxing fans outside of the UK thought that DeGale should have been given the decision over Groves, and don’t respect the decision in that fight. 2. DeGale is considered to be the better talent of the two, and has a better chance of future success in the minds of a lot of boxing fans.



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