By Scott Gilfoid: Former British super middleweight champion James DeGale fought well enough to win against challenger George Groves last week but came up short when Groves won the fight by a narrow and controversial 12 round majority decision. DeGale looked superb in the second half of the fight but fought the wrong fight in the first four rounds by starting out too slowly against the constantly moving Groves.

As such, Groves was given the nod based on the early work he did, winning by the scores of 115-114, 115-114 and 115-115. WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch saw the fight as well, and had this bit of advice for DeGale:

“He [DeGale] fought the wrong fight,” Froch said to the independent.co.uk. “Maybe this will be a reality check. I don’t really have any advice other than he should change his trainer. He didn’t seem prepared right mentally. With a different trainer he might have gone in with a more positive attitude. Where was the fire in his belly?”

I disagree. I think DeGale’s trainer was fine. It was simply a case of DeGale not being prepared to start attacking quickly enough. I still had DeGale winning the fight by four rounds, but he should have attacked Groves from the 1st round and kept him eating leather for the full 12 rounds in order to take the judges out of the fight. I think DeGale was prepared, but he seemed to wait too long to do what he needed to do. Sometimes if you get off to a slow start, the judges have already made up their minds after the first few rounds about who wins the fight. It’s like meeting someone for the first time. It’s sometimes impossible to get beyond the first impression and once there’s anchor there it’s hard to change your original thoughts. DeGale needs to learn from this fight and realize that you have to win over the judges from the first part of the fight and make them see you as a winner. If you ease off in between that, fine, but at least come out strong in the first four rounds.