DeGale will need to pressure Dirrell and hope he fades

By Boxing News - 05/23/2015 - Comments

_MG_0083(Photo credit: Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions) By Scott Gilfoid: The way I see it, James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) is up the creek without a paddle today in his fight against the more talented Andre Dirrell (24-1, 14 KOs) at the Agganis Arena, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

This is not a good match-up for the 29-year-old DeGale. If you look at the kind of guys that DeGale has been fighting in the past four years to help boost his confidence and improve his won-loss record, he’s pretty much put in with slow guys without hand speed, with no ability to move, and with limited athletic ability and punching power.

It’s true that DeGale has won 10 fights in a row, but look at the guys he’s beaten to win those fights. We’re talking guys like Gevorg Khatchikian, Cristian Sanavia, Piotr Wilczewski, Stjepan Bozic, Dyah Davis, Sebastien Demers, Fulgencio Zuniga and Marco Antonio Periban.

I wouldn’t expect casual boxing fans to realize the significance of DeGale fighting guys like that to help boost his confidence, but hardcore fans are going to realize right away that DeGale has had a very, very soft road since his loss to George Groves in 2011. As such, DeGale is coming into the fight against Dirrell with just the experience from his loss to Groves. You can’t really count the easy opponents that DeGale has fought as meaningful fights, can you?

I think it’s painfully obvious that DeGale has only one real chance of winning the fight today, and that’s if he pressures Dirrell nonstop for 12 rounds. Even then, the only way DeGale wins in my view is if Dirrell runs out of gas late in the fight. I mean, the pressure from DeGale isn’t going to help him in the first six rounds, because Dirrell is likely going to clown him and make him look real bad. But if the weight that Dirrell had to take off to get to 168 during the weigh-in on Friday becomes an issue late in the fight, then I can see DeGale winning some of the later rounds. But I only see that happening if Dirrell is feeling the negative effects from having lost a ton of water weight to get to the weigh-in limit of 168.

“I’m not going to take it for granted. I’m glad to be getting in there with somebody who believes he can win. I want someone who will test me like I’ll test them,” Dirrell said via the Boston Herald.

Dirrell, 31, is taking today’s fight very seriously because he knows he has to whip DeGale in order to pick up the IBF strap, and then move forward to the bigger fights at 168, like a rematch against Carl Froch. If Dirrell beats DeGale bad enough today, it might be enough to lure Froch off his couch so that he can start fighting again. He might want to try and avenge DeGale’s loss. I mean, I don’t think for a second that Froch will want a second taste of being in the ring with Dirrell, not after he experienced how difficult it was to fight Dirrell in 2009. But I think there’s a small chance that Froch might want to get back in the ring with Dirrell to see if he can beat him without controversy this time, while at the same time avenging DeGale’s crushing defeat.



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