By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver super middleweight champion James DeGale (14-1, 9 KO’s) has decided not to keep his EBU 168 pound title after all despite the European Boxing Union ruling that he can hold both titles at once. DeGale still prefers to defend his WBC strap rather than trying to hold down two belts and having to fight a lot of guys that he doesn’t want to waste his career fighting.
DeGale said on Sky Ringside “The next move is to say busy. I had to pick between WBC Silver and European title, and I’m going with WBC.”
DeGale was going to be forced to take another dull defense of his EBU title had he kept the strap, because his next opponent was someone named Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye. I saw some of his fights on Youtube, and man I was really unimpressed to the extreme. DeGale is much better off losing this strap so that he can be free to fight quality opposition.
If George Groves wants the belt, then he can go after it, but he might like having to fight all the guys that he’ll be forced to fight in defending the belt. He’s better off not taking the title and just looking to fight the best opponents he can get.
DeGale wants to fight often, because he thinks that will improve him so that when he does fight for a world title at some point in 2013 or 2014, he’ll be in a better position to win it. I think it’s good that DeGale wants to stay busy, but I don’t think he’ll be able to make enough improvements to beat the current crop of champions.
He’ll definitely improve by staying busy, but will it be enough for him to beat the likes of Andre Ward, Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch, I think not. He’ll improve enough to beat Groves in a rematch and remove controversy, but beyond that I don’t see it helping any.
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