By Scott Gilfoid: Not surprisingly, the management for #1 IBF James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) and #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) were unable to agree in their negotiations for a fight on April 25th, according to Dan Rafael. As such, it’s going to go a purse bid.
It’s not surprising that they were unable to negotiate a fight as DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport was looking to stage the fight in London, England on April 25th, and that obviously didn’t play too well with Dirrell, who already had a bad experience in the UK when he was arguably robbed in his fight against Carl Froch in 2009 in the Super Six tournament in Nottingham, UK.
Dirrell fought well enough to deserve a fairly lopsided decision, but instead he found himself on the receiving end of a controversial 12 round split decision. Hearn’s eagerness to have the Dirrell-DeGale fight staged in the UK obviously doesn’t have Dirrell feeling too excited about agreeing to the fight staged there, because the last thing he needs right now at this point in his career is to be found on the receiving end of another controversial decision.
It won’t help Dirrell if he gets the business with another controversial loss, because then DeGale would be the IBF champion at 168, and it would likely take Dirrell two to three years to get another world title shot.
Dirrell and DeGale’s management have been attempting to negotiate a fight since February 3rd, but Hearn wasn’t able to come to an agreement with Dirrell’s adviser Al Haymon.
“On Thursday the IBF said Hearn wrote to the organization saying he was no longer willing to negotiate the fight and asking for an immediate purse bid,” Rafael said via ESPN.com.
So Hearn told the International Boxing Federation that he was no longer willing to negotiate with Dirrell’s adviser? I can only guess why. You can’t expect a guy like Haymon to cave in on the idea of staging a fight between the more experienced Dirrell against DeGale to have a fight staged in the UK; not when Dirrell has already had a bad experience over there.
The purse bid will take place next month on March 10th. This is going to be interesting to see who can come up with the bigger cash to win the purse big – Hearn or Haymon?
If Haymon wins the purse bid, then they can stage the Dirrell vs. DeGale fight in the United States any number of places. I could see the fight doing well in Detroit, Michigan, or in Las Vegas, Nevada. Heck, you could even stage it in New York or Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Dirrell has a six-fight winning streak since his questionable loss to Froch in 2009. No one has come close to beating Dirrell since then. In Dirrell’s last fight, he defeated the hard hitting Derek Edwards by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision last December.
As for DeGale, he’s won his last 10 fights against generally weak opposition since his loss to George Groves in 2011. The fact that DeGale was beaten by Groves gives you a pretty clear picture about DeGale’s talent level. DeGale defeated Brandon Gonzales by a 4th round stoppage last May in their IBF eliminator bout.
Froch vacated his IBF super middleweight title recently after he’d been ordered to defend the strap against DeGale. As such, DeGale and Dirrell will fight over the vacant IBF title.
DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn was hoping that Groves would agree to fight DeGale for the IBF title instead of Dirrell, but Groves declined the offer. Hearn was going to offer Dirrell a small step aside payment and also let him fight on the undercard of the DeGale-Groves fight with the promise of Dirrell getting a shot at the winner of the DeGale vs. Groves fight.
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