The Mercurial Rise Of James Degale

[PRINCE O' PROSE]

groves landed the most punches on degale ever recorded in compubox history. also the crowd was really loud! how can you not be proud of that?

[Dirk Diggler UK]

^^^^^^ He finally shows himself!!!!!!!!

hahahahahahahahahahaha

Finally show myself?

You have me on ignore you puussy.

[PRINCE O' PROSE]

This whole DeGale-Groves she**** has been joooooooooookes.

[Perfect Plex]

You're actually proud of that "win" for Groves?

Yep delighted. No ONE out of the three Judges gave it to Degale, the best he could get was a draw on one card. (Same in the amatuers also)

He talked all that trash about how it was going to be so easy, and yet goes out and get beat AGAIN.

He really is James DeFail. He and his trainer got made fools of
To damn funny.

(Also take a look at my sig )

[Perfect Plex]

I'll Have That Slice Of Humble Pie

[Perfect Plex]

rticle from The Ring, I didnt see posted here

“I used to beat him up in sparring, so maybe I took it a bit easy, but I completely outboxed him. I was hitting him and making him miss. I’ve been abroad and I’ve been robbed – that’s how amateur boxing is – but I was gutted to lose that decision.” (Incidentally, the YouTube video shows a close and competitive fight with DeGale probably deserving the nod.)

Groves went on to win the ABA title that year and the next, but it was DeGale who got picked for the Olympics, although few expected him to come away with anything.

His draw was the toughest imaginable, starting with Egypt’s world bronze medallist, Mohamed Hikal (a 13-4 victory), followed by the highly rated American, Shawn Estrada (11-5). Next came Kazaskhstan’s 2004 Olympic gold medallist, Bakhtiyar Artayev (8-3), taking the Englishman into the semi-finals against Ireland’s Darren Sutherland, who’d beaten him in four of their previous five fights.

“Obviously I thought, ‘Ah, no, I’ve got him again,’” he said. “All of our previous fights were very close, but in those I was fighting his game – standing in the center of the ring. I knew it was going to be hard, but I was confident of winning if I could stick to the tactics given to me by our coach, Terry Edwards, which was to hit and move and keep a tight guard, and I won easily, 10-3. The movement was too much for him.”

The pair seemed set to resume their rivalry as professionals, but a year later, Sutherland, suffering from clinical depression, committed suicide by hanging himself.

“I was shocked and really upset when I heard about it,” said DeGale “We’d always had a very healthy rivalry, competitive but healthy.”

In the Olympic finals, he faced Cuba’s Emelio Correa (who’d won gold at the 2007 PanAm Games by knocking out Shawn Porter). Correa had twice beaten DeGale (in 2005 and 2007), but by the end of the first round, the Englishman was 5-1 up. After that, the Cuban tried to rough him up and even bit him, earning a two-point penalty that proved crucial because DeGale ended up winning 16-14.

He believes that in 18 month’s time he could top that gold medal by winning his first professional world title, but first he has local business to take care of. If he wins on Saturday, he is expected to face Commonwealth titleholder George Groves (11-0, 9 KOs).

DeGale comes across as friendly and engaging, but when the conversation turns to Groves, he struggles to contain the bile. He admits he hates Groves, whom he calls “that ugly ginger kid,” an odd description, because although Groves is a redhead (and British redheads have a hard time), he is reasonably good-looking. The British champion clearly resents the fact that the Commonwealth champion is routinely dubbed “the man who beat DeGale as an amateur.”

“He’s lived in my shadow half his life, so obviously he’s a bit jealous and bitter, and he’s living off my name,” DeGale said.

In his last fight, Groves got off the floor to stop the previously unbeaten Scotsman Kenny Anderson in six, and DeGale was shouting for his rival. “I was screaming, ‘George, hold, hold, no, put your guard up, come on!’ because I didn’t want anyone else to knock him out. I want to knock him out – if he mans-up and fights me. If I hit Groves, he will not get up like that. I’ll knock him out within four rounds.”

After that, DeGale wants the European title (currently held by the Irishman Brian Magee) and then a “big-name” U.S.-based fighter (he mentions Kelly Pavlik and Edison Miranda) before challenging for a version of the world title.