James Degale

What are your thoughts on his next opponent Fulgencio Zuniga. Should be a decent test Zuniga has been in with decent opposition but hopwfully chunky should come through this. It is good to see him fighting again so soon after his previous fight.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/boxing/4670011/James-DeGale-finds-Silver-lining-after-Kenny-Anderson-pulls-out.html

Seems to me he is fighting the same kind of "tough" but beatable opponent every outing. Not a bad match I am sure, but hard to get excited

This is for the vacant WBC Silver Super Middleweight title, according to Boxrec. I'm not even sure I know what that means! Zuniga's lost four of his last eight but all to decent opposition so it could be a difficult night but I'd expect Degale to take a fairly comfortable win.

He's out again late in January so, if nothing else, at least he's active.

Losses to Cloud, Pavlik, Bute and Oosthuizen shows he's been in with good opposition but shows that world class fighters can beat him so degale will want to impress to show he can hang like the others could. He's 35 now and has 22 knockouts in his 25 wins so can dig a bit and given Degales leaky defence recently an upset may be on the cards as his chin isn't the best

He doesn't hold alot of power so I'll go for Degale UD with a couple rocky moments

A very, very good opponent and fight for DeGale at this stage. Zuniga will be no pushover.

Let's not forget that Zuniga was royally stitched up against Inkin a few years back - he should certainly have had the WBO title to his name and boxed well in that fight. That was a while back, but he should have enough about him to take DeGale the full twelve - I don't think DeGale can budge the more resilient Super-Middleweights out there.

Fully expecting DeGale to run out a points winner but Zuniga is a very credible opponent for someone in DeGale's position, campaigning at what is effectively European level with eyes on a world title shot within the next couple of years or so.

It seems 'Fat Mick' might not be as inept as some amongst us seem to think he is!

88Chris05 wrote:A very, very good opponent and fight for DeGale at this stage. Zuniga will be no pushover.

Let's not forget that Zuniga was royally stitched up against Inkin a few years back - he should certainly have had the WBO title to his name and boxed well in that fight. That was a while back, but he should have enough about him to take DeGale the full twelve - I don't think DeGale can budge the more resilient Super-Middleweights out there.

Fully expecting DeGale to run out a points winner but Zuniga is a very credible opponent for someone in DeGale's position, campaigning at what is effectively European level with eyes on a world title shot within the next couple of years or so.

It seems 'Fat Mick' might not be as inept as some amongst us seem to think he is!

He done a great job with forch, ok not regarding his publicity but everything else. Degale is already well known and much easier to market.. and even if some hate him he has more personality than Froch.

I want to see Degale box more, move more. I don't think his power is as bad as some say, and I think he has a decent chin. But he needs to use his skill and speed to make the most of his strengths. last fight he looked rusty so i will watch this fight with interest.

Nice test, good to see him staying active, he'll need afew of these types of opponents to get him ready for world level in my view. We've so far had a thread talking about Degale and no mention of Groves!! Oops...

Until Degale has conclusively proved that he is much better than this level of opponent, it is entirely right to continue to make this kind of match for him. My main problem with him is that he hasn't really shown the degree of improvement that one would want over the course of his career so far. Mistakes have tended to be repeated.

Zuniga is a tough fighter of some pedigree, not unlike one or two that Degale has recently fought. If James can dispose of him with a greater degree of comfort than he did Mohoumadi or Wilczewski, it will be an indication that he is now heading in the right direction and ready for the next step.

An extremely important marker fight for DeGale's future and, as such, one that will be well worth watching.

In what will be his 15th fight his level of opposition for someone with so few fights is actually very impressive.

True enough, Ghosty, although James is not so young that he can afford to waste time. I'd like to see him show that he has learned from his last four or five fights and then shift on to the world-ranked gate-keepers, who would represent the last stage before world title fights. I've no problems with his level of opposition; I just want to see evidence that he is not stagnating from a technical point of view.

He only had his debut 3 years ago so 17 fights (providing he beats both this guy and the guy in January) isn't too bad given a lot of those where good tough fighters

Fighting for a world title at 27 may seem a little olde given fans expect fighters win world honours young so they can go up weights for the rest of their careers but in reality it isn't old at all

As others have said, the level of opposition isn't the problem, its the difficulties and lack of improvement he has shown against these guys who are all similar in being tough but lacking finesse.

He needs to show improvements from the last guy who simply applied pressure and walked through him and ran degale very close

captain carrantuohil wrote: If James can dispose of him with a greater degree of comfort than he did Mohoumadi or Wilczewski, it will be an indication that he is now heading in the right direction and ready for the next step.

I think Wilczewski is a decent fighter and while Degale had his hairy moments ultimately he out-boxed him and deservedly won the fight. I watched Abraham fight him and while he did not get caught like Degale did in the mid rounds it was only really down to Abrahams boring high guard.. but I did not recall Abraham hurt him like Degale did also... For me this was a good little comparison to see where Degale was at...

A decent match up and the key thing for degale at the moment especially with him being on five is keeping him busy and building his support back up. Time to step up the performance though. Maybe put down a marker if he can better those that have gone before him with zuniga