James Degale vs Mohammed Ali

Former Olympic gold medallist James DeGale will make the third defence of his EBU super-middleweight belt on January 26th in his second successive appearance at Bluewater in Kent against Mohammed Ali N’Diaye.

26 year-old Degale, who out-pointed Frenchman Hadillah Mohoumadi at the same venue in October, will tackle the EBU’s number one contender in the early part of next year, according to the European Boxing Union.

N’Diaye, 33, has lost just once in 23 outings and has stopped thirteen of those victims, with his only blemish coming in a controversial split decision loss to Lolenga Mock in the Dane’s home country four years ago.

LOL the title is misleading as heck.

I'm not a fan of Degale but won't give a dig at his opponent until I see a bit more about him. Plus it's only a good the Degale is getting back in the ring in quick succession.

Does anyone think Degale has improved from the Groves fight or gone backwards?

I think Degale would last a few rounds but Ali's weight and power would prove too much. Degale would be quicker tho and if he could establish his jab early on in the fight then I think he would win the first few rounds as Ali was not the quickest starter.

Mid rounds and Ali comes on a bit more firing out that quick jab. Degale has skill to slip punches but Ali takes this 1 from 5th round on wards.

Does anyone think Degale would beat the older version of Ali?

I think that would be a far more interesting fight.

thought you were trying to top up on the stupid comments awards for a minute there.

I was a fan of DeGale, felt he had slick southpaw skills and good defensive abilities. I gave him the Groves fight by a point, but couldn't argue with the decision as it was so tight. I tipped DeGale for big things and am quite disappointed at the way his career seems to have gone backwards post Groves. Groves himself has struggled too - perhaps the fight came too early for both men, who knows. DeGale has said he can easily make middleweight, I wouldn't mind seeing him give that a go as he has skill but little power at 168.

The genius of PBF wrote:Does anyone think Degale has improved from the Groves fight or gone backwards?

Hard to say as he had so much time out, People also over reacted to the Groves loss. If Groves him self is meant to be so good, then the fact Degale ran him so close and in many eyes including mine won the fight, then he has not done so bad... people forget in his last fight he was out for quite some time and had alot of out of the ring affairs to take care of, he still won the fight and the guy he fought was pretty tough.... While I saw flaws in that performance I am going to hold judgment for now. looks like they also have a warm up fight booked in on the 8th Dec, which is good to see, he needs to be fighting loads as i think that has been one of the reasons his progress has been slow... no fights!

No idea of his opponant so haven't got a clue how the fight will go but expect Degale to win.

I should be going to this as I live 15 mins from Bluewater.

Valero's Conscience wrote:No idea of his opponant so haven't got a clue how the fight will go but expect Degale to win.

I should be going to this as I live 15 mins from Bluewater.

the guy looks pretty good, its a mandatory defence so not an easy fight at all.

I also hear that it could be Anderson he fights on the 8th, not exactly just a tune up... Hhmm

I went to his last fight at Bluewater and it was a good night out so I might go again as its the only venue localish to me where I don't feel like I'll be stabbed on entry. Hopefully the undercard will be better this time.

Degale must improve his defence or eventually he will be sparked like a spark plug living in Sparkington during the annual spark festivities

Anyone predict a FrochvDegale late 2013 or early 2014.
I know Froch will probably be retiring soon but if his belt remains with him then the money could be too hard to turn down for both of them.

aja424 wrote:Anyone predict a FrochvDegale late 2013 or early 2014.
I know Froch will probably be retiring soon but if his belt remains with him then the money could be too hard to turn down for both of them.

If that fight happens anytime soon Degale will get murdered.

Seanusarrilius wrote:Degale must improve his defence or eventually he will be sparked like a spark plug living in Sparkington during the annual spark festivities

For me the main thing wrong with Degale at the moment is he does not seem to focus on his strengths. Generally I think talk of his "lack of power" is a little over blown as I think his power is ok, not one punch knock out power no, but he has some sting to his punches.

But the way he boxes its like he thinks he does have loads of power, and because he can also take a punch quite well he seems to think he can just stand and trade with people and when this happens he ends up scrapping for a win rather than boxing it out.

His strengths are his speed, he can fight on the inside well (i know his last fight did not show this much), his foot work. and I actually think he has a good defense when using it but he throws it out of the window and tries to be too flash sometimes and then gets caught.

He needs to box more and use his movement and defense and not get dragged in all the time. He has enough power to grind people down and get late stoppages but he needs to learn how to keep out of trouble.

I think in his last fight his conditioning was not up to scratch as he just looked very tired as the fight went on... with the Groves fight and WP fight were both tough 12 rounders but he was going strong till the end and in fact got better towards the end, in his last fight he was knackered by the end and blowing allot, so I think this tells us something.