By William Mackay: James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) defeated European Boxing Union super middleweight champion Piotr Wilczewski (29-2, 10 KO’s) by a 12 round majority decision on Saturday night to captured the EBU title at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, England. The judges scored the fight 115-113, 114-114 and 115-113.

After the fight the 25-year-old DeGale said he wants to fight for a world title now. However, the way that DeGale fought he really has no business fighting for a world title and he needs to think hard about whether it would be a wise move to waste his time taking on a champion.

DeGale doesn’t look ready any of the four champions and it’s unclear whether he ever will be. DeGale appears to lack the power and the build for the super middleweight division. That was pretty much shown the way the light hitting Wilczewski was the bigger puncher last Saturday night and was able to hurt DeGale on a couple of occasions with right hands.

That’s not a good sign if you’re a DeGale fan. If he doesn’t have the power or the chin to handle shots from a relatively light hitter like Wilczewski then he’s going to be in way over his head against the stronger champions and/or contenders in the division.

There are too many good fighters at this weight, and I can’t see DeGale being successful. He really needs to consider moving down in weight if he wants to have a chance to make something of himself. At 168, DeGale is just too weak and lacking for him to contend with the likes of Mikkel Kessler, Andre Ward, Carl Froch or Lucian Bute. All of them would knock DeGale out. Those guys are too strong for DeGale.

DeGale’s promoter Frank Warren should sit down and look at moving DeGale down, because he’s going to be in trouble if and when he’s put in with a quality fighter. I don’t see this as something that will change in the future. DeGale looks too weak now and he’ll likely be too weak in three years. He’s just not strong at this weight, and his work rate isn’t high enough either. He’s going to have to work on that problem because he won’t successful at any weight if he doesn’t throw more punches. Supposedly, DeGale was working on that problem and had fixed it, but I saw no improvement. DeGale essentially looked to be the same fighter that was beaten by George Groves in his fight last May.

DeGale wants a rematch with Groves. I think that would be a mistake. DeGale needs to skip that fight, because Groves will beat him again and it will hurt DeGale’s career. He needs to move down in weight and work on his work rate problems at that weight.