James DeGale vows to return to ring in December

JAMES DEGALE wants to return to the ring in December after recovering from the shoulder injury that forced him to miss out on the World Boxing Super Series.

The super-middleweight edition of the eight-fighter competition began on Saturday when Callum Smith defeated Erik Skoglund, and DeGaleโ€™s rivals George Groves and Chris Eubank Jnr will also have their quarter-finals in the coming month.

IBF champion DeGale remains widely thought of as the worldโ€™s leading super-middleweight but, since drawing with Badou Jack in January, has undergone surgery on a torn rotator cuff on his right shoulder and also struggled with a nose injury.

โ€œHopefully by the end of September Iโ€™ll be able to punch, by October Iโ€™ll be able to spar again, so Iโ€™ll be back (in) December,โ€ the 31-year-old told Press Association Sport.

โ€œIt was serious surgery. Iโ€™m just pleased that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel because (my shoulder) is getting better, itโ€™s feeling looser, I can do a lot more stuff with it.

โ€œItโ€™s been a long road. Itโ€™s horrible. More painful than any fight Iโ€™ve ever had. The (Rogelio) Medina fight and Badou Jack fight, I was boxing handicapped: 100 per cent Iโ€™d have beaten Jack without it.

โ€œMy nose as well: I had a deviated septum, where the cartilage has come over and I couldnโ€™t breathe through my nose.

โ€œI got a call (for the WBSS) but I needed my operation. I couldnโ€™t go in that competition like that, fighting handicapped.

โ€œItโ€™s a good tournament, thereโ€™s a lot of good fighters in it, and I am a bit disappointed, but hopefully Iโ€™ll get the winner.โ€

DeGale considers Smith and WBA champion Groves the competition favourites, and remains interested in what would be a highly sought-after rematch with the latter.


โ€œGroves has been saying that after this tournament, if he comes through, he can retire,โ€ he said. โ€œI think thatโ€™s false. Itโ€™s a big-money fight and he doesnโ€™t like me. That fightโ€™s always going to be there.

โ€œI want the winner, and I think the winnerโ€™s Groves or Smith. I want to box three times next year.

โ€œThereโ€™s a possibility of me going up (to light-heavyweight) just to fight (Jack), โ€™cause I know he ainโ€™t in my class.

โ€œIโ€™ll get back to prove Iโ€™m still the best super-middleweight in the country, and move forward.โ€

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