Excellent result from George Groves. I watched the fight live, and I actually scored the fight a draw. Nevertheless, I am happy George Groves won the fight.
Even though I scored the fight a draw, if I had to pick a winner, I would have said Groves was more appropriate. DeGale came on strong in the fight, and DeGale had his moments. But Groves won much of the early rounds, and had a great round 7 and 10. So I thought the fight slighlty favoured Groves.
This was a tremendous result and I am happy that fair judging was applied to this fight.
I am not surprised at this result, as a couple posts back I said I considered Groves a live opponent and that I was suspect of DeGale's boxing ability. What I said was proven true.
Great win for Groves, and this win will do wonders for his career. However I dont feel him or DeGale is ready for the top names at 168 yet. Groves is only 23 years old, I think he can use some soft touches for 1 or 2 years before challenging for a title by the time he is 25-26.
Also, one final point: DeGale was fighting a bit dirty and should have been penalized in this fight. He was warned for shouldering in round 2, he committed an elbow in round 3 (standard policy dictates he should have been penalized here, but was not), and threw a forearm in round 11.
Thats 3 fouls, 1 warning and no point deduction. Just saying, he should have been penalized.
Anyways, the right guy won and thats whats important!