By Edward Chaykovsky

On November 28th in Canada, IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale retained his title, via twelve round decision, in a tough fight with former beltholder Lucian Bute.

Bute put in his best performance since getting knocked out in five rounds by Carl Froch in May of 2012.

Froch was ordered to defend the IBF title against DeGale earlier this year. He vacated the title and later retired from the sport. DeGale would go on to decision Andre Dirrell to capture the vacant IBF belt.

When discussing his reasons for rejecting DeGale, the Nottingham boxer said there wasn't enough money in the fight.

Froch praised and downplayed DeGale victory in the same breath.

"Yeah it’s a great result, he beat an ex world champion that’s proven himself at a decent level for quite a few years before he got “Cobra’d” and I say that because since getting beat by me, he’s not been the same. Bute had a loss against Pascal then he had a couple of wins at a heavier weight and he’s not really beat anybody to say that he’s back," Froch told

While some viewed Bute's performance as a sign that the Canadian star had finally regained his confidence, Froch saw the performance as an indication of DeGale's shortcomings.

"I think Bute boxed well, he went twelve rounds with DeGale, which sort of exposes [DeGale's] punching power and his ability to close the show late on, in terms of upping the pressure and upping the work rate because he didn’t do that," Froch said.

"I think it was a decent enough win for DeGale to sort of establish himself a little bit more as a world champion in what I feel now with me retiring and Kessler retiring, Abraham reaching the end of his career, and Andre Ward moving up to light heavyweight, I think it’s quite a weak division at the moment."