By Scott Gilfoid: #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) is fully prepared to travel to the UK to face #1 IBF James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) for the vacant IBF super middleweight title on April 25th if he has to.
Dirrell would obviously prefer the fight take place in the United States so that he can fight in front of his own boxing fans, but he’s willing and unafraid of fighting the 29-year-old DeGale in front of his British fans if the money is right.
Dirrell and DeGale are both in negotiations as of now, but the fight is expected to be announced by next week possibly.
Dirrell has every reason to be concerned with traveling to the UK to fight after he found himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision in 2009 when he fought Carl Froch in Nottingham.
Dirrell boxed well enough to deserve a clear decision victory, yet two of the judges scored the fight in Froch’s favor, even with him fouling Dirrell constantly from the 5th round on. The event was obviously a bad experience for Dirrell, because he felt like he’d beaten Froch handily.
“I’ll be willing to do whatever it takes. I’m definitely unhappy with the judges’ decision last time, but that is no reason for me to be worried about coming there the second time around,” said Dirrell via Skysports.com. “I do feel like I was unfairly treated there.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcOxVtjZFD4
Dirrell believes he’s going to be able to beat DeGale in such a one-sided manner that there’s no way that the judges could have a problem scoring the fight. Dirrell sees himself doing a number on DeGale and winning a clear victory on 4/25.
As far as how he’ll do against DeGale, Dirrell said “I believe I’ll come out victorious.”
In comparing the two fighters, it’s like night and day. DeGale is so much slower, flat-footed and weaker than Dirrell that it’s not even funny. Yeah, DeGale has done well lately, but look at the guys he’s been fighting. DeGale hasn’t been put in with anyone good during his career, and his opposition lately has been especially mediocre in quality in my view.
Since being beaten by Groves in 2011, DeGale has beaten the following fighters: Marco Antonio Periban, Brandon Gonzales, Gevorg Khatchikian, Dyah Davis, Stjepan Bozic, Sebastien Demers, Fulgencio Zuniga, Hadillah Mohoumadi, Cristian Sanavia, and Piotr Wilczewski. That’s four years of mediocrity, as far as I’m concerned. Heck, even before that, DeGale had never fought anyone good.
I don’t rate Groves as being a good fighter. DeGale fought well enough to deserve a loss against Wilczewski and Mohoumadi. I thought DeGale lost both of those fights, and I don’t see him as having improved since then. He’s fought a bunch of beatable, record-padding opposition and aged four years, Instead of being stepped up against quality fighters, DeGale has largely been stuck in one long rut for four years. I mean, the guy should have been stepped up in 2010 against good opposition in 2010, given that he’d won a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics.
Granted, DeGale didn’t beat anyone that I consider a good fighter in the Olympics, so it kind of taints his victory in my eyes, because he had the benefit of fighting in the Olympics during a week year.
When Dirrell fought in the Olympics in 2004, he fought Gennady Golovkin in a fight that many boxing fans thought Dirrell won. Dirrell was nailing Golovkin constantly with blinding fast head shots in the fight, but the judges weren’t scoring the blows even though he was landing with the white portion of his gloves.
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