Andre Dirrell to James DeGale: I’m beating your backside!

By Boxing News - 02/06/2015 - Comments

dirrell3423 - CopyBy Scott Gilfoid: It seems that James DeGale’s recent comments about him thinking he can stop #2 IBF super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) has woken the American talent up and got him riled a bit. Dirrell is now predicting that he’s going to whip the 29-year-old DeGale’s backside when he gets him inside the ring, whether that be in the UK or America.

Dirrell doesn’t care too much about where the fight takes place. He only knows that he’s going to thrash DeGale badly and take the vacant IBF super middleweight title, which was recently dumped by Britain’s Carl Froch.

For some reason, Froch didn’t want to fight DeGale. That leaves it up to Dirrell to show Froch how it’s done in beating DeGale, and creating a blueprint for other fighters to follow when they too fight him in the future.

“I’m saying this as plain as possible in layman’s terms for all you cats that think otherwise – DeGale, from me to you, I’m beating your [backside]. I don’t know how to say it any other way. I don’t care you all think I’m going to do, I’m [expletive] on him,” Dirrell said via Boxing Ego.

Dirrell and DeGale will be facing each other on April 25th if the fight can get negotiated by then. It’s likely going to go to purse bids, however, because DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn reportedly wants to get Dirrell to agree to fight DeGale in the UK rather than the United States.

If it does go to purse bids, then Hearn will need to likely outbid Dirrell’s adviser Al Haymon, who has deep pockets. But nevertheless, even if Hearn does win the purse bid, it still won’t change much.

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Dirrell already proved that he can shine in fighting in the UK when he fought Froch in the Super Six tournament in 2009. Dirrell clowned Froch for most of the fight and showed himself to be the superior fighter in the minds of many boxing fans, including fans from the UK.

Froch got away with a great deal of fouling from the 5th round on, and incredibly he wasn’t penalized by the referee [Hector Afu] working the fight. You can make a strong argument that DeGale will be fighting an unbeaten fighter in Dirrell when the two fighters face each other on April 25th, because Dirrell clearly deserved a victory in the Froch fight.

Here’s what DeGale recently had to say about Dirrell as quoted by Fightnews.com: “He’s technically good, but I could see myself stopping him later in the fight, I am capable of getting in and stopping anyone.”

So there it is. DeGale thinks he can knockout Dirrell. Well, DeGale is going to get a chance to prove that he can do this when he gets inside the ring with him on April 25th. I don’t think that DeGale has the power to stop a guy like Dirrell. DeGale has a flat-footed fighting stance, and he does a lot of slapping with his punches. He doesn’t move well at all, and he cut off the ring. His legs are real heavy, and he mostly is flat-footed when he’s trying to be slick.

A lot of DeGale’s boxing fans feel that he’s improved recently from after his loss to George Groves in 2011. They point to DeGale’s wins over Brandon Gonzales, Dyah Davis and Marco Antonio Periban as proof that he’s improved. However, these aren’t great fighters, and it’s really not a big deal that DeGale beat them. I mean, DeGale likely would have beaten all those guys the moment he turned pro in 2009, because those guys are really basic. Dirrell is well above those fighters in talent, and I think DeGale is going to find out the hard way just how much better Dirrell is when they fight each other on 4/25.



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