By Scott Gilfoid: Super middleweight talent James DeGale (10-1, 8 KO’s) is eying a world title shot by this time next year, and sees big things for himself in the future. DeGale, 25, fights for the EBU super middleweight belt in October against champion Piotr Wilcewski in a date that still has yet to be determined.

Speaking with Sky Sports Ringside, DeGale said “By October I’ll be back at the top where I want to be fighting for the European title [against Wilcewski]. And by next summer, I’m going to be fighting for a world title.”

DeGale lost his last fight to George Groves by a very, very, controversial 12 round decision last May. Groves used and in and out attack to build up an early lead in the first four rounds, but DeGale came storming back to dominate from the 5th until the 12th. It was a clear win for DeGale, but the judges failed to give DeGale the win.

The loss actually didn’t matter because the sanctioning bodies actually ignored it, just as I did because it was a terrible decision. DeGale has gone up in rankings since the loss, while Groves is still well behind him. What does that tell you about the decision? DeGale is ranked #7 by the WBO, and with a win over Wilcewski, ranked #2 by the WBC, in October, DeGale will no doubt be pushed to the very top of the division by the World Boxing Organization.

DeGale can then fight for a title against whoever the champion is by then. It’s likely to be Mikkel Kessler, as he fights the current WBO paper champion Robert Stieglitz in November and it’s pretty much academic at this point that Kessler is going to blow Stieglitz out. This will set up a great fight between DeGale and Kessler. My only hope is that Kessler doesn’t avoid the DeGale like I think he will.

As for Groves, he’s made it clear that he’s going in a different path from DeGale and wants to avoid fighting him until later after he’s created his own success.