By Scott Gilfoid: Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) successfully made weight on Friday’s weigh-in for his fight on Saturday night against Britain’s James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) at the Agganis Arena, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Dirrell weighed in at 167.8 pounds, and looked in great shape but kind of dehydrated.

Dirrell had the look of someone who had taken off a lot of water weight to get down to the 168lb limit. For his part, DeGale weighed in at 167.2 pounds, and he looked pretty much the way he normally does in his fights. You can expect Dirrell to put on a little more weight than DeGale tonight when he rehydrates.

Dirrell has been looking really big lately for his fights, and I suspect he’s going to be the bigger guy when he gets inside the ring on NBC on Premier Boxing Champions.

“I’m going to show everybody who I am. I’m driven to become the first Olympic gold medalist from the U.K. to win a world title and I’m doing it for my country,” DeGale said to the Telegraph.co.uk.

DeGale has a lot to prove in this fight because he’s just burned up four long years of his career fighting weak opposition following his loss to George Groves in 2011. DeGale has put his career in a long stall since the Groves fight instead of moving forward and looking for the bigger fights.

It’s hard to believe that DeGale chewed up four years in trying to come back from the loss to Groves because he would have been back much sooner had he gone off the soft diet of 2nd and 3rd tier fodder and instead started facing top tier fighters. But whatever the case, DeGale must have thought that fighting weak opposition for four years was the right way to it. That obviously puts an incredible amount of pressure on the 29-year-old DeGale for this fight against Dirrell on Saturday night, because DeGale cannot afford to lose this fight. I mean, if DeGale loses, then that four years were wasted years. It would also put him back into the position where he’d likely go back to fighting fodder opposition once again.

I’d like to think that DeGale wouldn’t waste another four years of his career fighting weak opposition before stepping it up again because he doesn’t look like he’s improved at all from the fighter he was in 2011 when Groves beat him. What’s the point in waiting four years before stepping it up when you’re not improving as a fighter? It just doesn’t make any sense at all whatsoever.

“It’s been a 16-week camp come fight night, so it’s been a long time. My body and mind feel ready to fight, I am so sharp and in a very good place,” DeGale said.

16 week training camp for DeGale? Wow! That can’t be good. I think we could have a case of DeGale being weak and spent by the time he gets inside the ring on Saturday night. I just hope that DeGale doesn’t use his long training camp as an excuse in case things don’t work out for him in this fight. It would be a pity if DeGale starts making excuses like the ones we saw from Manny Pacquiao when he lost to Floyd Mayweathe Jr. in their “Fight of the Century” on May 2nd.