By Scott Gilfoid: Previously unbeaten James DeGale (10-1, 8 KO’s) will be making his comeback fight this Saturday night against EBU super middleweight champion Piotr Wilczewski (29-1, 10 KO’s) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England.

DeGale, 25, lost his last fight by a 12 round decision to Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves in their grudge match last May. DeGale, being a mature adult, has completely forgotten about the loss to Groves and has learned lessons from the fight. DeGale won’t be starting slowly anymore like he did in the Groves fight, and will immediately go after Wilczewski from the first round.

DeGale already recognizes the talent Wilczewski has and sees him as a tougher fight than the Groves fight because of all the things that Wilczewski can do in the ring. Wilczewski looked ferocious in taking out a very good fighter in Amin Asikainen in the 11th round last March. Wilczewski showed both boxing ability and punching power in that fight and looked a lot more versatile than Groves in his spoiling fight against DeGale.

DeGale can’t afford to lose this fight to Wilczewski if he wants to remain relevant. Being that DeGale still is on the cusp of winning a world title and still hasn’t truly gotten to the top yet, a loss to a guy like Wilczewski would be a crushing blow to his promising career. DeGale has to go right after Wilczewski and not give him any breathing room like he did against Groves.

DeGale has to fight at a much faster pace than he did in the first five rounds of the Groves bout. DeGale can’t let Wilczewski run around the ring and expect to be able to come on late in the same way he did against Groves to dominate the 2nd half. Even when you dominate the second half of fights, the judges often times give it to the guy that started off well. It’s almost as they shut down mentally and go on their first impressions.