By Scott Gilfoid: European Boxing Union (EBU) super middleweight champion James DeGale (11-1, 8 KO’s) was hoping he would get a rematch with British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (13-0, 10 KO’s) after DeGale defeated EBU champion Piotr Wilczewski by a 12 round majority decision on October 15th.

But it looks like DeGale has got a lot more waiting to do before he ever gets a chance to fight Groves again. Groves is now saying he won’t bother fighting DeGale again until the two of them are world champions or one of them is a world champ. Given that the super middleweight division is pretty well stacked with talent right now among the champions, I don’t see an opening available where guys like DeGale and Groves can scoop up a world title. Unless DeGale or Groves can scoop up one of those interim titles that the sanctioning bodies like to put up, I can’t see these winning titles anytime soon, can you?

Groves said this to the mirror.co.uk: “It’s inevitable we will fight again. But it will be at the right time. Personally, I won’t feel it’ll be right again until one, or both of us, has a world title. Then the public will demand that it happens and it would be even bigger than our last fight, which was huge. You look back to the era when we had Benn, Collins and Eubank and they had some great fights. James and I can be like that if we keep progressing and I think we will.”

Groves is likely talking about the British public demanding to see a DeGale vs. Groves fight. I can’t see that happening either. DeGale just went life a death with a Euro level champion, and got a win that looks to me to be a gift. I saw the fight as a draw. DeGale probably didn’t win a lot of fans with that performance, and I don’t think the demand is there for a Groves vs. DeGale fight. And Groves is about to fight Paul Smith on November 5th. I can see Groves losing that fight or stinking up the joint by choosing to run and feint all night long like he did against DeGale. That isn’t going to win Groves fans. He’s got to become more fan friendly by slugging more and running less. A close call win over Smith won’t do much in term of making a future DeGale vs. Groves fight bigger.