https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=082i2yLhxtM
>By Scott Gilfoid: In a sign that #1 IBF James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) is already looking past his next fight against #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) for their fight next month on May 23rd for the vacant IBF super middleweight strap, DeGale is talking about wanting to fight #1 WBC George Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) or one of the other world champions at 168.

The thing is the only way that a DeGale vs. Groves fight makes any sense at all is if DeGale defeats Dirrell to capture the IBF super middleweight title, and Groves beats WBC 168 pound champion Anthony Dirrell to win his title.

If both DeGale and Groves win those fights against the Dirrell brothers, they’ll then be able to face each other in a unification fight if Groves agrees to it. However, the odds of Groves and DeGale winning their fights against the talented Dirrell brothers are slim in my view. I can’t see either of them making it the full distance.

“Once you’ve won the title it’s about building and unifying, and being in those great, exciting fights,” DeGale said via Skysports.com. “That’s what I plan to do, but first I need to get past Dirrell which is a hard, hard task in itself. I’m confident in doing that and after, it will get bigger and bigger.”

It’s obviously a pipe dream of DeGale for him to go out and beat the speedy fast Andre Dirrell in their fight on 5/23 at the Agganis Arena, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I don’t see how DeGale will be able to get the job done with the skillset that he has. I mean, DeGale is kind of limited in terms of hand speed, power and dare I say talent. In other words, DeGale is too slow and weak in terms of speed and punching power to hang with a guy as good as Dirrell in my view. I personally now see Andre Dirrell as the best fighter in the super middleweight division.

I previously had Andre Ward as the No.1 guy in the 168 pound division, but I think Dirrell has really matured into being a super star type fighter with Floyd Mayweather Jr type skills but with punching power along the lines of Froch. I think Froch hits a little harder, but Dirrell is so close to Froch with his punching power that there isn’t much separating them. But with Dirrell’s amazing hand speed, I see him as being a much more formidable puncher than Froch has ever been.

“Groves is a possibility but he’s got his own path, he’ll be boxing for the WBC title at the end of the year,” DeGale said. “So that’s a massive fight – imagine unifying titles with two English fighters.”

I wouldn’t mind seeing DeGale face Groves a second time, but unfortunately I don’t see it happening unless the two of them are willing to face each other on the back of defeats to the Dirrell brothers. At the earliest, I can’t see a DeGale-Groves fight taking place this year. It’ll have to take place next year because the Anthony Dirrell vs. Groves fight will likely be scheduled near the end of 2015.

Ideally, you want to see a DeGale-Groves 2 fight take place under positive circumstances for both fighters in terms of their careers. That means you don’t want to see DeGale and Groves facing each other on the back of defeats to the Dirrell brothers. Unfortunately, it’s probably going to take at least two to three years for Groves and DeGale to rebuild after their losses to the Dirrells. Groves has already lost two out of his last four fights.

A defeat to Anthony Dirrell will make it three out of his last five fights, and that’s just too many defeats to interest boxing fans in a Groves-DeGale II fight. I think the two of them will need to go through a serious two year rebuilding program before they’ll be in position to where they can face each other in 2018 or 2019.

Trying to unify titles in the super middleweight division is all but impossible for a fighter like DeGale, because even if he were able to beat Dirrell, he’ll probably never get a shot at WBO champion Arthur Abraham. That guy seems to be focused on facing Felix Sturm and then Robert Stieglitz.

I can see Abraham going around in circles fighting Sturm and Stieglitz for the next few years. I don’t see Abraham letting DeGale get a chance to fight him. DeGale can get a fight against Andre Ward, but that’s not a winnable fight for DeGale in my view. I think it would be a lopsided win by Ward with him totally schooling DeGale and making him look silly in the process.

I think Froch is likely to be stripped of his WBA title with Sturm fighting for the strap against Fedor Chudinov. If Sturms wins that fight, no way do I see him fighting DeGale. As such, I really don’t see any chance of DeGale getting a unification fight unless it’s against Ward, and like I said, no way will DeGale win that fight. But none of this stuff really matters though. It’s academic that Andre Dirrell will defeat DeGale in my mind in their fight on May 23rd because I just see Dirrell as way too talented for DeGale to be able to hang with him in this fight. It’s not a question of whether Dirrell will beat DeGale, but rather how badly he’ll beat him. I see it as a really bad beating for DeGale.