DeGale working on being more aggressive in the ring, says he’ll be a different fighter next time

By Boxing News - 08/24/2011 - Comments

Image: DeGale working on being more aggressive in the ring, says he'll be a different fighter next timeBy Scott Gilfoid: Badly burned with a poor decision in his last fight against George Groves, James DeGale (10-1, 8 KO’s) is vowing never to start slowly again in his future fights. DeGale is working on being more aggressive, cutting off the ring and taking the fight to his opponents much more than he did in the past.

DeGale knows he beat Groves, but the judges seemed to be watching a completely different fight from the one that took place on that night. But DeGale still sees a benefit to the defeat, because it’s giving him the motivation to change his game. He realizes that he’ll likely be facing more runners like Groves in the future and the way to beat a runner is to take the fight to them the way DeGale took the fight to Groves in the last six rounds of the fight.

I saw DeGale edging Groves by two rounds, but it matters little that Groves won because DeGale is still considered the better fighter around the world. A lot of boxing fans in England, for whatever reason, may not see DeGale as the better fighter but that’s their baggage. The world sees him as the better fighter, as evidenced by DeGale’s higher ranking.

DeGale said this to frankwarren.tv: “A figther that Jummy [McDonnell] and I have discussed is Marvin Hagler, and specifically his fight with Tommy Hearns. Hagler went to war straight away, and I’d have done that against Groves, I would have won the fight, easy. I’ve been working on being more aggressive and cutting down the ring. There are so many good things that can come from a loss and that’s one of them. You are going to see a completely different fighter next time I box.”

As of now, DeGale still doesn’t have a date for his upcoming fight against European Boxing Union (EBU) super middleweight champion Piotr Wilczewski but DeGale says it will likely happen in October.



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