Froch interested in fighting DeGale if he beats Dirrell on May 23rd

By Boxing News - 03/29/2015 - Comments

froch563478By Scott Gilfoid: After vacating his IBF super middleweight title recently in order not to have to face #1 IBF challenger James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs), WBA 168 pound champion Carl Froch (33-2, 24 KOs) is now saying he might be interested in going after his old IBF title if DeGale defeats #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) in their fight two months from now on May 23rd at the Agganis Arena, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

DeGale and Dirrell will be fighting for Froch’s vacant IBF super middleweight title in this fight, which will be televised on the Premier Boxing Champion series.

Why Froch simply didn’t just defend his IBF title against the 29-year-old DeGale is anyone’s guess. I guess the fight didn’t interest Froch at the time, but it would possibly interest him if DeGale is able to defeat Dirrell.

“It’s [Dirrell] a tough, tough fight for DeGale, and one that I think he can win,” Froch said to IFL TV about DeGale’s May 23rd fight against Dirrell. “If he comes out and puts it on Dirrell early, I think he can win it. Bring that title back to Britain where it belongs. Remember, it might just be on loan for a little while. If the right fight comes along, I’ll be back in the gym.”

I don’t think DeGale has even a slight chance of beating Dirrell. We’re talking about a fighter who does everything that DeGale can do, but he does it much better. Dirrell is too advanced, too talented, too quick and much too strong for a slow, flat-footed fighter like DeGale to ever beat him.

So it looks like Froch will only be interested in fighting for the IBF super middleweight title if DeGale wins, but not Dirrell. I don’t know what that means, but I have a hunch it could be due to the way that Dirrell dominated Froch in their fight six years ago in the Super Six tournament in 2009.

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The Froch-Dirrell fight took place in Froch’s backyard in Nottingham, UK, where Froch is supposedly a much better fight due to the crowd support. But instead of Froch fighting at a high level, it was Dirrell who dominated the entire 12 round fight, beating Froch to the point where he started fouling like crazy from the 5th round on.

If the referee had actually taken charge of the fight and penalized Froch for his constant fouling, I think Dirrell would have won a lopsided 12 round decision, even with the bizarre scoring of the fight by the judges working the fight. I had Dirrell winning the fight by an 8 rounds to 3 score with 1 round even. Of course, might scoring would have been even more lopsided if the referee had taken points off from Froch for his constant rabbit punching of Dirrell and for him body slamming Dirrell in the 5th round.

As for the DeGale vs. Dirrell fight, I don’t think Froch’s idea of DeGale pressuring Dirrell will work well. If DeGale follows Froch’s advice and pressures Dirrell early in the fight, I see the fight even more one-sided than it would otherwise be.

If DeGale pressure’s Dirrell early, the fight is going to get way out of hand with Dirrell totally dominating and clowning DeGale. I can see Dirrell winning every round, and heading towards an early knockout if DeGale tries to pressure him. The only way that DeGale has a chance in this fight is if he tries to box Dirrell, and even that won’t work, because Dirrell is a much better boxer than DeGale in my view.

DeGale is still the same fighter that lost to George Groves in 2011, and struggled in life and death fights against Piotr Wilczewski and Hadillah Mohoumadi. If boxing fans watch those three fights, they’ll realize quickly that DeGale doesn’t stand a chance against Dirrell, and they’ll also realize that DeGale has been very, very carefully matched in the last three years of his career.



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