Degale splits with Warren

Well, didn't see this one coming. I'm sure more will come out in due course, but what are our initial thoughts?

Not very wise IMO, Warren has done OK for the kid, he wanted the Groves fight, Warren delivered, he lost which is not Frank's fault and on the back of the loss Frank got him straight into a european title. All told he has not done too bad by Degale thus far. If James can't draw crowds can hardly see how this is Frank's fault.

I actually said in my post the other day that there might be problems with Degale and Warren when his fight date was changed, but didn't expect this.

Very surprising, Degale obviously doesn't want to be in Groves shadow and probably getting sick of not being a 'fan fav' either. America beckons perhaps!

Degale is in need of a no nonsense mentor to slap him in the face and say 'look! you're not good enough yet, take your time and shut your mouth.'

So who is the Chunkster gonna join now then?

Eddie Hearn is it as he seems to be Mr Popular at the moment

On the back of this and Gavin's problems you do have to think Frank may be tempted to keep his cheque book firmly shut after this years Olympics.

Warren is usually a bitter man in these situations, I suspect a rematch with Groves will now be a long long way off,Warren will make sure of that.

Warren said "Its a shame James has left my company as I was on the verge of signing up a 2 fight deal with Andre Ward"

Steffan wrote:Warren said "Its a shame James has left my company as I was on the verge of signing up a 2 fight deal with Andre Ward"

Hahahahaahahah

Steffan wrote:Warren said "Its a shame James has left my company as I was on the verge of signing up a 2 fight deal with Andre Ward"

You've been misinformed Steffan was a four fight deal with Kessler, Froch, Bute and Ward, all had agreed to fight in the venue of James choosing and to let him win.

rowley wrote:

Steffan wrote:Warren said "Its a shame James has left my company as I was on the verge of signing up a 2 fight deal with Andre Ward"

You've been misinformed Steffan was a four fight deal with Kessler, Froch, Bute and Ward, all had agreed to fight in the venue of James choosing and to let him win.

With a 80/20 revenue deal in DeGale's favour. Except for Bute, who agreed to fight for free.

Stupid move. Groves rematch won't happen for a while - and uncle Frank will spread poison about Groves in the gutter press.

now Frank is saying he has Degale under contract until 2013. This will get ugllllly!

Degale is Flip, last thing he needed just now, obviously more to it, maybe he's been giving goves too much attention.

The Galveston Giant wrote:Degale is Flip, last thing he needed just now, obviously more to it, maybe he's been giving goves too much attention.

And why shouldnt he? Groves beat DeGale and Degale looked rotten in his last victory against a not very good fighter (and he wore black boots and socks which always looks dodgy)

Groves would be my baby for sure.

rowley wrote:Not very wise IMO, Warren has done OK for the kid, he wanted the Groves fight, Warren delivered, he lost which is not Frank's fault and on the back of the loss Frank got him straight into a european title. All told he has not done too bad by Degale thus far. If James can't draw crowds can hardly see how this is Frank's fault.

And Groves can?

tunes666 wrote:

rowley wrote:Not very wise IMO, Warren has done OK for the kid, he wanted the Groves fight, Warren delivered, he lost which is not Frank's fault and on the back of the loss Frank got him straight into a european title. All told he has not done too bad by Degale thus far. If James can't draw crowds can hardly see how this is Frank's fault.

And Groves can?

Don't recall saying he could but don't let that interfere with whatever point you're making.

rowley wrote:

tunes666 wrote:

rowley wrote:Not very wise IMO, Warren has done OK for the kid, he wanted the Groves fight, Warren delivered, he lost which is not Frank's fault and on the back of the loss Frank got him straight into a european title. All told he has not done too bad by Degale thus far. If James can't draw crowds can hardly see how this is Frank's fault.

And Groves can?

Don't recall saying he could but don't let that interfere with whatever point you're making.

A question mark at the end of a comment usually underlines that a question has been asked, rather than a statement made, but don't let that interfere with what ever point your making..

Silly move as Rowley mentioned he can't draw flies, IMO he loses to Groves 100 times out of 100, think he'll fall into obscurity in two three years ! Never seen a fighter compete and win at the highest level without being able to throw a straight punch,

The Ward stuff is a probably a petulant Warren talking bs.......

Good... savvy move by a kid I didn't think had brains.....

SKY lack big British names..Degale is getting there as one and instead of fighting on the relatively consumer-free zone of Boxnation ..he'll be able to join Hearn.....fight and pick up a following on SKY!!!!

Makes sense to me and I'm sure he won't be the first to leave Frankie boy....

Now Degale will have more say over his career...and more people watching it..

Shrewd move..

Well I'm still struggling to see what relevance the question has to the point I made, whether Groves can or cannot draw crowds is largely academic as to the best of my knowledge he is not in the process of trying to leave Warren

"He loses to Groves 100 times out of a 100....."

Come on Man.....50 % of people thought that Degale won ...

Groves was at his best and Degale was having a bad night..

Come on................please.

rowley wrote:Well I'm still struggling to see what relevance the question has to the point I made, whether Groves can or cannot draw crowds is largely academic as to the best of my knowledge he is not in the process of trying to leave Warren

point is that for the stage Degale is at, his crowed pulling should not be an issue... and hence would not have played a part in the fall out..

I get the feeling that Warren is good at taking a fighter to a level, but may like to own then a bit too much..

I think getting Degale's arch rival in like he did, at the time he did after such a close fight, it was not a great move.

So Warren invested in him and after losing a controversial loss to another top rated Brit and a solid win against the Euro champ after only 11 pro fights and people think Warren has changed his mind now?

I dont think so... and Kell Brook is not a bad fighter also, so Warren is not unknown for losing good fighters..

Bad idea in my view. Without knowing the reasons DeGale has given its difficult to comment. But as others have said, warren has done pretty good by him so far and has a proven formula to get you to a decent enough level with limited risk. If its childish reasons like feeling undermined by Groves or Warren refusing to get him a rematch with Groves immediately then its a huge blunder but who knows what has been going on behind the scenes.

Disagree Rowley is right..In that he's been showcased enough on big events like.........Clev-Bellew, Degale-Groves to attain a would be crowd..

he isn't popular the kid...more reason for him to move to SKY in my opinion...

But he should have a following!! by now.

I think he'd have more of a following had he not spent 3 months insulting George Groves before their fight.

Ever heard of HYPE?????

That's not hype truss, that was petty and made him look like a complete fool.

I agree with you there.....But I think he was told to stoke the fire a bit...

Degale has a better following and more name recognition than most fighters do at his early stage. im sure any one of the other british promoters would happily promote him. if he thinks one of them can do a better job then thats up to him. hope hes not getting too big for his boots and goin down the audley harrison route though.

manos de piedra wrote:Bad idea in my view. Without knowing the reasons DeGale has given its difficult to comment. But as others have said, warren has done pretty good by him so far and has a proven formula to get you to a decent enough level with limited risk. If its childish reasons like feeling undermined by Groves or Warren refusing to get him a rematch with Groves immediately then its a huge blunder but who knows what has been going on behind the scenes.

In fairness he brushed away everyone he faced with ease apart from Groves and his last fight which he still clearly won.. as well as having a gold medal on his wall, so in reality he has made life pretty easy for Frank...

Does anyone actually know what cut a promoter will take on average, and what sort of cut Warren takes?

I'm sure the rumours are quite common, indeed they may not be rumours at all, i've heard pro's say along the lines of "Frank takes his money but gets you the fights".

I've read this may be as much as 50%. Is this right?

Maybe James is just too stubborn to let someone take such a big chunk of his money, even if the smaller percentage is of a bigger pie.

tunes666 wrote:

manos de piedra wrote:Bad idea in my view. Without knowing the reasons DeGale has given its difficult to comment. But as others have said, warren has done pretty good by him so far and has a proven formula to get you to a decent enough level with limited risk. If its childish reasons like feeling undermined by Groves or Warren refusing to get him a rematch with Groves immediately then its a huge blunder but who knows what has been going on behind the scenes.

In fairness he brushed away everyone he faced with ease apart from Groves and his last fight which he still clearly won.. as well as having a gold medal on his wall, so in reality he has made life pretty easy for Frank...

I dont agree. How many promoters would have got him a European title shot straight after losing to a domestic rival? Or able to get him the kind of coverage and payday he got from the Groves fight?

He hasnt made things easy for Warren at all. The split might attest to that. Hes been constantly whinging, alienating the public and his ego seems to believes he is at a far more advanced stage than he is.

DeGale ain't no Einstein.

Stupid decision. It was the Groves fight that has caused this imo. Degale wanted that fight and pressured Warren for it confident that he would beat "the ugly ginger kid" but of course he lost. That defeat was a blow for Degale. Had he won I don't think he would have any problems with Warren.

Glad this has happened, without succumbing to double standards I'd say any fighter leaving Warren's pocket is good for British boxing.

Maybe he has realised that nobody he knows (outside boxing circles) subscribes to Boxnation, and will therefore never see him in action.
Degale, among others, has mentioned the popularity of Benn, Eubank, Collins and even Calzaghes popularity in the 90's, and knows this was due to the exposure. No chance will his popularity grow on such a channel.
I also think Eubank Snr had an influence on his sons choice of promoter, and this was down to being on terrestial tv and getting maximum exposure whilst looking good and blasting out his first few opponents.

Well, for starters, this makes the Boxnation subscription a little less worthy (probably). If Degale ends up on Sky I'll be happy enough and I don't really like the bloke. But he is a decent boxer and he could do very well. Against almost anyone but Groves I'll back James I reckon as I like to see British fighters do well. With a bit of decent coverage and PR advice he could do nicely out of this.

Fair enough, I think most porbably the reason is that Warren was trying to get him to slow down and not have a title shot this year and Degale was having none of it and decided to leave. It's been abundantly clear that Degale thinks he's better than he is for some time and that Warren just wants to tame him and slow him down, but it seems Degale really just thinks he's a million miles better than he is, I don't think he is at world level just yet and Warren knew this.

Could also be a money thing, I mean perhaps he has found out he could make more money being on Sky right now and in the long run with more exposure and Hearn can deliver more money in his lap.

Plenty of reasons it COULD be, but it is most probably Degale thinking he is better than he is and Warren trying to hold him back or a money driven reason, heck, could be both.

Though in my opinion, I don't say this often, but Warren has actually done pretty good for Degale, Euro title just after losing on a big PPV night for him. He was also trying to slow him down for his own good, but oh well, by the sounds of it, it is going to get very ugly as someone said above.

Think we're starting to see a changing of the guard in british fight promotion, would imagine he signs with either Hatton or Hearn and does far better from it.

Yeah perhaps it was a bad move by Warren with BoxNation.

Taking of Boxnation, I don't know the answer to this but wouldn't the channel be more successful if it was free to air, then if a fight caught the imagination, they could make it ppv. Cut off the channel the day of the fight for those who didn't purchase, turn it back on the next day.They'd only need a couple of big fights a year to do better than they're doing right now wouldn't they? Or wouldn't this work? Would everyone just go to the pub to watch it? There have to be vast swathes of people who'd prefer to watch it at home surely.

Does anyone actually know how well or badly the channel is doing, have they actually announced how many subscribers they have? Would have to say though if Degale does fly the coop, on the back of Cleverly's less than ambitious match making and Gavin not exactly being where he needs to be is not a lot domestically that appears to justify the fee.

Get the impression the findings wouldn't be impressive jeff, otherwise you can be sure they would have been published. Only way the channel can build up a following is free to air. Most important thing for the fighters is exposure.


When things aren't working, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

Hope you're right mate, genuinely hope this channel fails, have been against it from day one and will remain against it.

jeff, if it was free to air, I'd love it to be a success. Ain't going to work in it's present format is it that I think is already clear. They tried fair play, it didn't work out for them. Really hope now that with their backs to the wall, they show some innovation and fighting spirit, rather than pulling the plug after the first six months.

Smart move by Degale. How can he expect to build a fanbase when he is hidden on a small subscriber channell? This is what has killed boxing in the first place!

If hes smart, Degale will follow the example set by great fighters like Benn, Collins and Eubank and he will fight on regular television and aim to become a household name. If hes got the talent and character he will then succeed.