BoxRec

What's happened to Chunky? Seems to have fallen off the radar. Anyone know if he's out soon?

He was having some dispute with Hennessy, because he wanted to change stables again. Channel 5 was talking about dropping boxing at the time, and DeGale was 'in talks'.

It went a bit quiet though, so don't quite know what's happening.

He had talks with Top Rank alledgedly and Eddie Hearn saw him coming out of the HBO offices in New York a while back. He's also split with McDonnell apparently.

Interesting to see what happens.

dbf wrote:He had talks with Top Rank alledgedly and Eddie Hearn saw him coming out of the HBO offices in New York a while back. He's also split with McDonnell apparently.

Interesting to see what happens.

Meant to have a fight October 19th!

leaving that coach will be the best move he could ever make.

stevieb_8006 wrote:leaving that coach will be the best move he could ever make.

X2
Degale would be better going stateside!
John David Jackson would be great for him I've allway's said it.remember him boxing pyatt a tricky switch hitter like degale box both guards

Is that 100%?

I thought mcdonnell was supposed to be like a second dad to him, james basically lived at his house and had his meals cooked for him etc.

Pretty big news if he decided to leave.

They were still together last week...

He needs to leave McDonnell if he wants to get to the next level. McDonnell is a fantastic motivator and conditioner but his tactical and technical knowledge is not up to world level.

leforge wrote:Meant to have a fight October 19th!

I did wonder.

Eubank Jr. mentioned a possible fight in October in his Channel 5 interview the other day. The only way that was going to happen is if it was on a DeGale undercard.

dookus wrote:McDonnell is a fantastic motivator and conditioner but his tactical and technical knowledge is not up to world level.

Nor is DeGale.

He needs to sort his head out. He went from Olympic champion and celeb and 'will be world champ in 2 years' to nobody who will be unlikely to ever pick up a belt

danconnollyeire wrote:He needs to sort his head out. He went from Olympic champion and celeb and 'will be world champ in 2 years' to nobody who will be unlikely to ever pick up a belt

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

I have to agree on that. Don't like him at all as a person. So glad Groves won that fight. Seems like he was enjoying all his fame without really earning it. He might have won the gold medal; doesn't mean we have to support him.

Eddy wrote:I have to agree on that. Don't like him at all as a person. So glad Groves won that fight. Seems like he was enjoying all his fame without really earning it. He might have won the gold medal; doesn't mean we have to support him.

Have you met him?

I used to have a similar view on degale that he was a bit big for his own boots but you know what, after meeting him he's a top lad. Very confident but rightly so. He's fought at a really good level and if it wasn't for inactivity I think we'd have seen some exciting things from him.

Hope he gets out again soon I really feel that he can be one of the best fighters Britain has produced in a long time.

iftkwoody wrote:I used to have a similar view on degale that he was a bit big for his own boots but you know what, after meeting him he's a top lad. Very confident but rightly so. He's fought at a really good level and if it wasn't for inactivity I think we'd have seen some exciting things from him.

Hope he gets out again soon I really feel that he can be one of the best fighters Britain has produced in a long time.

Nobody cares that he's confident. You need confidence to suceed in sport.

It doesn't change the fact that he is a plum. The way he acted before the Groves fight put a lot of people of him. "I call him Ugly Boy. Ugleeeee Boyeeee." It wasn't funny the first time, why did you think it'd be funny doing it a dozen times in every pre-fight interview you had? And then offering a bet with Groves. And then doing that little dance at the end of the fight when the guy said 'undefeated', because he'd forgotten Groves was undefeated as well. Twat.

What is frustrating is James is actually a really nice lad. Has a lot of time for people. Admittedly I was a fan but he happened to be in our hotel in Ibiza over the summer and despite the entourage he made a lot of effort to take a few pics with us and chat with us about how our holiday was going when he didnt have to and you could see his mates were tapping their feet.

He has clearly decided to try and build a bad boy persona to gain ratings be talked about but I think he had either chosen wrongly or been badly advised as he isa really endearing nice guy when chatting to him but then puts the loud brashness on for the cameras, it doesn't work for him unfortunately.

I can see why he has done it there are hundreds of humble quiet "I just go out there and do my best" type boxers in interviews and he needs to make himself stand out a bit. Still I dont think this was the right way of going about it.

I’d love to see DeGale work on his defence a little more. Maybe take a couple of ticking over fights just to hone the defence. Sometimes I feel he gets pulled into a war of attrition and there’s no need. He has the ability to make the other guy miss more.

He looks a hard man to me. A tough nut. I think he can be really successful as a pro.

I know the pre-Groves stuff turned a lot of people off. It turned me off. But he seems to have turned all that down now.

wrimc wrote:What is frustrating is James is actually a really nice lad. Has a lot of time for people. Admittedly I was a fan but he happened to be in our hotel in Ibiza over the summer and despite the entourage he made a lot of effort to take a few pics with us and chat with us about how our holiday was going when he didnt have to and you could see his mates were tapping their feet.

He has clearly decided to try and build a bad boy persona to gain ratings be talked about but I think he had either chosen wrongly or been badly advised as he isa really endearing nice guy when chatting to him but then puts the loud brashness on for the cameras, it doesn't work for him unfortunately.

I can see why he has done it there are hundreds of humble quiet "I just go out there and do my best" type boxers in interviews and he needs to make himself stand out a bit. Still I dont think this was the right way of going about it.

In my opinion, that makes it worse. The fact that he's a decent lad off-camera, makes it more annoying that his twattishness is put on.

It seems to be the done thing these days that you have to be a loudmouth braggart to sell fights. And it's annoying. Becuase the trash-talk is the least entertaining part of the boxing match.

If DeGale is pretending to be an arsehole when he isn't one, that's almost as bad as being an arsehole naturally.

BUTURE'S NOT TOO FRIGHT

This old chesnut

Yes he's a nice guy in public. He's not different on air, its just that when he talks off camera, it's not normally about punching someones face in so he is going to come across differently. A mate came to a show with me and he wasn't particulary pumped about the boxing on show, but meeting James De Gale made his night. There was a bit of banter as another lad we were with teased him for asking for a pic, James got stuck right in to the craic, defending the guy asking for the pic. Nobody tried to belittle his world class achievements and didn't call him horseface, so he managed to not mention the fact that the guy doing the teasing was ginger.

You can make anyone out to be a complete knob when you pick and choose which facts you use to form your judgement.

Ive heard quite a few people say that Degale is a nice guy IRL and actually quite sensitive and kind. It's funny because since him and Groves fought I think Groves has turned into more of an arrogant tosspot than Degale!

JamesH wrote:This old chesnut

Yes he's a nice guy in public. He's not different on air, its just that when he talks off camera, it's not normally about punching someones face in so he is going to come across differently. A mate came to a show with me and he wasn't particulary pumped about the boxing on show, but meeting James De Gale made his night. There was a bit of banter as another lad we were with teased him for asking for a pic, James got stuck right in to the craic, defending the guy asking for the pic. Nobody tried to belittle his world class achievements and didn't call him horseface, so he managed to not mention the fact that the guy doing the teasing was ginger.

You can make anyone out to be a complete knob when you pick and choose which facts you use to form your judgement.

Good call I imagine that working out of the limelight will have helped DeGale work on aspects of his boxing and how he comes across to people through the media. The Groves bout was a while ago and if he's still getting stick now for things he said to get an edge and build a show then it says more about those bringing it up than it does DeGale. I hope he's not split from Jim McDonnell, they seemed to have a good plan and were working well - I imagined they'd get a break and then build on it this season - this weeks write up in Boxing News was straightforward and made a lot of sense - there are 3 excellent boxers at 12 stone in England, the managers and promoters ought to have it within their skill and wit to put some good bouts on which earn good money for the boxers,