By Scott Gilfoid: EBU super middleweight champion James DeGale (13-1, 9 KO’s) successfully defended his EBU title on Saturday night with an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision over France’s Hadillah Mohoumadi (13-3-1, 9 kO’s) at the Glow, Bluewater, Greenhithe, Kent, United Kingdom.

The final judges’ scores were 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112, all to DeGale. The fight was a heck of a lot closer than the scores handed down, and no way did DeGale deserve o win this fight by a 119-109 score. That was just sad scoring if you ask me. DeGale ended up with bad swelling on the left side of his face from all the right hands he kept getting hit with by Mohoumadi.

You have to wonder about DeGale’s stamina because he blowing wind early in the fight around the 4th round. While he was the more talented fighter than Mohoumadi, but he didn’t have the stamina to fight in the center of the ring. It was like DeGale was still fighting as an amateur because once the fight went past the 4th round, DeGale had little in the tank and was forced to fight with his back against the ropes. That’s where Mohoumadi was able to land some really hard shots in every round showing that he was the much better inside fighter than DeGale.

DeGale came on in the 10th, and showed flashes of his amateur form as he moved around the ring looking to land pot shots. However, DeGale slapped with his punches way too much and this seemed to rob him of the power that he could have if he punched correctly. Although DeGale mostly dominated the last three rounds, Mohoumadi kept the pressure on and was landing frequently. DeGale went back to the ropes again and again in the last part of the fight and this gave Mohoumadi the opportunity to land some nice shots to further swell up DeGale’s face.

It seemed pretty clear that Mohoumadi’s only chance of winning the fight was by knockout but he lacked the power to do the job and he made things harder for himself by smothering his own power by standing too close to DeGale.

After the fight DeGale mentioned that he’d like to fight again in December in order to stay busy. He wants to fight frequently to try and make up for the time that he lost while having promoter problems.

I hate to say it but I think this is as good as DeGale can get. He’s not going to get much better and this is about the best we can expect from him. He lacks hand speed, foot speed, power, stamina and ring IQ. He’s not going to win a real world title, not from what I can see of him. If his promoter is slick he might be able to angle DeGale into fighting for one of the interim world titles and then have it transferred to a full title at some point, but I can’t see him ever being more than a paper champion because he doesn’t have the kind of talent to beat the top guys in the division.