By Scott Gilfoid: Ambrose Mendy, the adviser for #1 IBF, #4 WBC James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs), thinks a rematch between DeGale and former two time world title challenger George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) for the vacant IBF super middleweight title if the current champion Carl Froch is stripped or vacates due to him failing to defend it against DeGale, his IBF mandatory.
Froch has until January 31st to make up his mind whether he’ll face DeGale or not. If not, then the IBF will likely start the stripping process of Froch if he doesn’t relinquish it himself.
Mendy believes that a DeGale-Groves 2 rematch can go ahead for the vacant IBF title after that. However, there’s a couple of problems with that. First of all, #7 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) recently beat Derek Edwards in an IBF eliminator bout, so Dirrell is now the second mandatory challenger to the International Boxing Federation 168 pound title.
This means that if Froch vacates or is stripped of his IBF strap, then Dirrell will be the next in line behind DeGale to fight for the vacant IBF title unless he decides he doesn’t want to fight for the IBF title, which I highly doubt. As such, DeGale can’t fight Groves for the vacant IBF title because Dirrell already earned the shot to fight for the title with his win over Edwards.
The other thing that would mess up a Groves-DeGale 2 rematch is the fact that Groves is already the mandatory for WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell, and Groves seems to really want that fight. However, even if Groves changed his mind about wanting to mix it up with the powerful and highly accurate Dirrell, he’d still not be able to fight DeGale for the IBF title because Andre Dirrell is the next up for that strap if Froch gets stripped or vacate.
“Right now Carl Froch still has until January 31 before he is told to fight James or they strip him of the title. Then what will happen is James will probably fight George Groves,” Mendy said via voice-online.co.uk. “Gilberto Ramirez has already said he doesn’t want to fight James, it’s too early for him.”
It sounds nice but too bad it’s likely not going to happen. DeGale vs. Groves will need to take place at a later date and likely not for a title, because DeGale is going to have his work cut out for him against Andre Dirrell, and Groves is going to be up against it in his fight against Anthony Dirrell. I can see both Groves and DeGale getting knocked out in those fights and left high and dry.
DeGale is coming off back to back knockout wins over Marco Antonio Periban and Brandon Gonzales. Those wins have some boxing fans thinking that DeGale has improved as a fighter rather than him being matched against guys that were deeply flawed to begin with. DeGale hasn’t really taken on a decent test since his loss to Groves in 2011, and in that fight DeGale royally blew it by not pushing the pace in the first six rounds of the fight.
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