Rogelio Medina: I want a rematch with James DeGale

By Boxing News - 05/01/2016 - Comments

James DeGale vs Rogelio MedinaBy Scott Gilfoid: Rogelio Medina (36-7, 30 KOs) lost his fight last night against IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs), but the fans felt differently about the outcome of the fight with many of them feeling that Medina had done enough to deserve the decision at the DC Armory in Washington, DC.

Medina wants a rematch because he thinks he should have gotten the decision. Medina wants a rematch. DeGale didn’t say anything about wanting to fight Medina again. I can’t blame DeGale if he never fights the 27-year-old Medina again because this guy seems to have his number. Medina threw an incredible 1,140 punches in the fight. When was the last time you saw a fighter throw that many punches and wind up losing?

Medina outworked DeGale, and landed the harder shots all night long. DeGale won the fight by the scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 117-111. Medina was constantly landing and he should have at least gotten a draw out of the fight. DeGale didn’t stand and fight enough to show that he had won the fight, and the fans obviously saw it the same way due to the booing that they did when the scores were announced. DeGale won the fight, but Medina won the audience over with his impressive performance.

“He said he was going to stop me. He was running all around and he didn’t stop me like he said he would,” said Medina. “He’s the only one who thinks he won. The fans think I won. I definitely want the rematch.”

I think it’s safe to say that DeGale won’t be giving Medina a rematch. I can’t see him ever giving Medina a rematch.

This is becoming a pattern for DeGale. He fights, looks terrible, and wins a close and controversial decision. We saw it in DeGale’s previous fight against Lucian Bute last November, and we saw it before that in DeGale’s fight against the talented Andre Dirrell last year in May. DeGale barely beat both of those guys, and you can argue that his fight with Bute should have been scored a draw rather than a win for DeGale.

The simple fact of the matter is that DeGale doesn’t have the talent to beat the top guys conclusively. He’s forced to battle hard to get past guys through the skin of his teeth in winning one controversial decision after another. Thus far, DeGale has been quite lucky in winning fights by questionable decisions, but he can’t make a career out of this.

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Sooner or later the judges are going to score a fight against DeGale, and I see this starting a downward trend. DeGale is basically an average fighter and not a true talent.

Yeah, he’s holding the IBF title, but he’s not much of a champion. We’re clearly going through a weak era in the super middleweight division. The talents retired and/or gotten old, and we’re now seeing a bunch of paper champions holding down titles without any of them being able to distinguish themselves as the real thing. In my estimation, WBO champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez is the best of the bunch, but he fights on HBO, so we won’t likely be seeing him fight DeGale or any of the other champions.