James DeGale, the two-time super-middleweight champion, has hinted at a return to boxing after winning his bare-knuckle debut at the weekend.

DeGale, 39, took on Australian boxer Matt Floyd, who was also competing as a bare-knuckle fighter for the first time, at AO Arena, Manchester on Saturday night.

After five ugly rounds, during which the referee deducted a combined total of four points from the fighters, a battered and bruised DeGale came out on top via decision.

However, he is expected to immediately retire from the discipline with a 1-0 record as sources close to the 2008 Olympic champion revealed he is not planning to go again.

And on Sunday, DeGale suggested that having finally returned to combat sports, he is now ready to step back into a boxing ring.

“Massive respect to Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and the fighters - it’s a brutal sport!” he wrote. “Matty Floyd showed that with headbutts, low blows and rabbit punches.

“Back to boxing for me.”

The southpaw, who twice won the IBF 168-pound title during his career, has not boxed since he dropped a unanimous decision to Chris Eubank Jr at o2 Arena, London in February 2019.

That defeat left his record at 25-3-1 (15 KOs) and, after more than six years out of the sport, it looked as though Chunky would never fight again.

But DeGale, who recently became a father for the first time, could be set to draw a line under his absence from the ring by making a comeback.

It is now more than a decade since the former Dale Youth amateur made history by becoming the first Olympic gold medalist from Great Britain to become a professional world champion when he beat Andre Dirrell via decision on a famous night in Boston on May 23, 2015.

He went on to successfully defend that belt on the road against Lucian Bute and Rogelio ‘Porky’ Medina but failed in his bid to unify when he and WBC champion Badou Jack shared a dramatic draw at Barclays Center, Brooklyn in January 2017.

Then, 11 months later, he was stunned by underdog Caleb Truax, who claimed a majority decision and DeGale’s IBF title at Copper Box Arena, London in one of the biggest shocks of the year.

DeGale then became a two-time IBF champion when he exacted revenge on Truax in their rematch at Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas in April 2018 in what would be the final world title fight of his career.