By Scott Gilfoid: Earlier today it was announced that the Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) vs. James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) fight is signed for May 23rd at a still to be determined venue in Boston, Massachusetts. DeGale’s promoter Eddie Hearn signed the contract last night for the fight, and he’s feeling confident that the 29-year-old DeGale will make history by becoming the first British Olympic gold medalist to capture a world title.

Dirrell will technically have the home advantage in the fight due to him coming from Flint, Michigan. However, Hearn thinks there will be more British fans showing up to see the fight than Dirrell fans. Either way, it’s not going to matter.

Dirrell fights well whether fighting in front of a friendly or hostile crowd. We saw that in 2009 when he got the better of Carl Froch in front of his own fans in Nottingham, UK. Dirrell lost the fight by a controversial decision, but to this day massive amounts of boxing fans felt that Dirrell was robbed of the decision.

DeGale feels he matches up with Dirrell in every department – speed, power and talent. But when you look at the two guys fighting, it’s hard to see DeGale being even close to the talent and the hand speed that Dirrell has.

DeGale has more in common with Dirrell’s last opponent Derek Edwards than he does with Dirrell in my view. DeGale doesn’t punch as hard as Edwards, but he moves as fast as him and his punching speed is similar to his. DeGale doesn’t have fast hands. He’s slow, flat-footed and he’s tall for the weight class.

“I match him with everything, all his attributes, I match him,” DeGale said via IFL TV.

I don’t see DeGale matching Dirrell with anything. To me, DeGale looks like Dirrell put in slow motion. But even in slow motion, DeGale doesn’t have the defensive skills or the mobility that Dirrell has.

DeGale is a flat-footed fighter who throws a lot of slapping hooks, and who hasn’t faced anyone remotely good during his career. He lost to George Groves in 2011, and that was his best opponent of his career. His level of competition has gone downward since the Groves fight, and for that reason he’s done well.

“This is a fight that really turns him [DeGale] into a superstar,” Hearn said via IFL TV. “I think James is the favorite. James will have many more fans than Andre Dirrell. Many more Brit fans than Andre Dirrell fans will be in the house. James really has his mind set on making history, and that is to become the first British gold medalist to win a world title.”

I really don’t see it happening for DeGale in this fight, I hate to say. Dirrell is a lot better than Groves in my view, and we saw Groves out-box DeGale four years ago. I don’t see any improvement in DeGale’s game since then whatsoever. The only thing I’ve noticed is that DeGale has been matched against a lot of easy marks since the Groves fight. He’s won his last 9 fights but he’s done it against guys like Gevorg Khatchikian, Dyah Davis, Stjepan Bozic, Sebastien Demers, Fulgencio Zuniga, Cristian Sanavia, Piotr Wilczewski, Brandon Gonzales, Hadillah Mohoumadi and Marco Antonio Periban.

Those are record padding fights in my view, and it’s not surprising that DeGale has gone unbeaten since his loss to Groves. I mean, I don’t see any talent among the bunch of guys he’s fought, so it’s not surprising that he’s not lost a gain, although I did see DeGale losing to Wilczewski and almost losing to Mohoumadi.

I think Dirrell is going to easily beat DeGale and likely score a stoppage of DeGale tries to fight hard. If DeGale doesn’t mentally back off after he starts getting dominated by Dirrell, then I see DeGale getting stopped. This is a mismatch in my mind.