By Scott Gilfoid: James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) picked up the EBU super middleweight crown last Saturday night with a 12 round majority decision win over champion Piotr Wilczewski (29-2, 10 KO’s) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. I’m mighty disappointed in his performance. I don’t think he deserved the win.

DeGale looked bad and that’s me putting it mildly. I’ve been a big fan of his for some time but I’ve got to say he looked very, very average against a good fighter but not a top five guy. The judges scored the DeGale-Wilczewski fight by the following scored 115-113, 114-114 and 115-113. I agree with the 114-114 scores.

As much as I tried to see DeGale winning the fight, I could give him rounds 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9. I had Wilczewski winning rounds 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12. DeGale fought well at the start of the fight, but then started eating right hands one after another from Wilczewski from the 3rd round until the 6th. DeGale took the fight to the inside in the 6th where he was able to dominate Wilczewski from the 6th through the 9th rounds. However, DeGale ran out of gas in the last three rounds and Wilczewski dominated rounds 10, 11 and 12 with his right hands and better work rate.

All in all, a truly terrible performance from DeGale. He was badly hurt in the 5th from a right hand from Wilczewski and took some big shots from him the rest of the way. I don’t know what DeGale do. He’s not a big puncher, and gets nailed when he fights on the outside. DeGale is good when he’s in close, but he’s just busy enough during crucial rounds and this will hurt him when he faces better opposition than the limited Wilczewski.

I think DeGale’s promoter should keep him at the domestic level for a couple of more years until he shows improvement. You put DeGale in with a really good fighter know he’ll get taken apart. The thing is DeGale was fighting at full capacity in this bout and I just don’t know that he can improve enough for him to be a world champion. If I was his promoter I might settle for keeping him at domestic level and just look for the best fights there.

Someone mentioned having DeGale move down in weight to see if he’s a stronger puncher at middleweight. That’s certainly something that they should try, because he doesn’t have it at super middleweight. The talent isn’t there for DeGale to compete with world class guys like Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler and Lucian Bute. Maybe throw DeGale in with Carl Froch, and if he beats Froch, then let him fight the better guys. If not, then keep DeGale at domestic level.