By Scott Gilfoid: For the third time in the last two years, IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) is getting the chance to gloat after one of George Groves’ defeats. The latest defeat for ‘Saint George’ came last Saturday night with Groves, 27, losing to WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (21-1-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 115-112, 116-111 for Badou, and 114-113 for Groves.
DeGale says Groves made a mistake by taking the fight with the 31-year-old Badou. He should have fought him for his IBF title instead. However, DeGale says he’ll give Groves a title shot, but the purse split will be heavily slanted in his favor at 90-10.
It’s one of those take it or leave it type offers that Groves will likely not agree to. But if Groves believes in himself, he’ll take the offer just so that he has a chance of winning the IBF title, and then getting a better payday in a rematch with DeGale.
“Wrong move, wrong move,” DeGale said via skysports.com. “Every dog has his day. Funny how things work out. But we’ll have to negotiate the purse. Maybe 90 [per cent for me]… 10 per cent to him. We’ll see.”
Groves should be happy that DeGale is throwing him a bone by offering him a title shot that he clearly doesn’t deserve. But if Groves does say yes to the fight, it would put him in the position to where he would likely be the one doing the hard work to pump up interest in the fight just like he did in his two fights against former IBF/WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch, but without getting a chance to enjoy the money that the fight will make.
I’m not sure how much interest the British boxing public will have in a DeGale vs. Groves fight right now, given Groves’ 3 defeats in his last 5 fights. But I’m sure it’ll make decent cash.
I just don’t think Groves will be able to enjoy the fight as much knowing that he’s only getting a 10% cut of the revenue. Froch got the lion’s share of the money in his two fights against Groves, which obviously was a bad deal for Groves because he’s the one that made those fights huge in my opinion. Without Groves driving up interest in those two fights, I think the fans wouldn’t have been so eager to see them.
The defeat was especially disappointing if you’re a Groves fan because if he had won the WBC 168lb title, he could have taken the title and fought DeGale in a unification fight with a likely purse split in his favor. But with the defeat to Badou, Groves now has lost 3 out of his last 5 fights, and he’s in no position to get a good purse split against DeGale.
Heck, you can make an argument that Groves doesn’t deserve a title shot at all against DeGale.
“As I said, I’m in boxing for the big fights and if the British public want it [DeGale vs. Groves 2] and demand it, let’s do it,” DeGale said. “He’s got to ask himself some questions. Can he mix it at the top level with the elite fighters? I don’t think he can.”
Groves needs to think about going back to his old trainer Adam Booth, because he seemed to have better success with him as his trainer than he’s had with Paddy Fitzpatrick. I personally think Groves lost his recent fights due to a combination of chin and stamina problems. I’m not sure if Booth can fix either of those two issues, but at least he could have Groves running around the ring like he did when he was his trainer. That’ll make it more difficult for his opponents like DeGale to hit him.
The British public probably will be interested in a rematch between Groves and DeGale, but I don’t think Groves should take the fight right now. His confidence has got to be at an all-time low due to those three defeats, and the money that he’ll get won’t be as good as it will be if he can work his way back to the No.1 mandatory position after picking up some big wins. Yeah, if Groves takes the fight now with DeGale, he’ll get a good payday, but the purse split would be heavily in DeGale’s favor. Groves won’t want to be put in the position again where he’s the one promoting the fight and the not getting a chance to enjoy the money that the fight brings in.
DeGale could easily be in the same position that Groves is in now if he fought Froch twice and then fought Badou Jack. I think DeGale would have lost all those fights, and he’d be in one down position right now with his career. But DeGale took a bunch of soft opponents, and then lucked out in squeaking by the arguably more talented Andre Dirrell in the worst performance of Dirrell’s career last April.
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