Warren interested in matching DeGale vs. Pavlik – News

By Boxing News - 01/09/2011 - Comments

Image: Warren interested in matching DeGale vs. Pavlik - NewsBy Sean McDaniel: British boxing promoter Frank Warren is interested in putting his fighter 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist James DeGale (9-0, 7 KO”s) in with ex-WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (36-2, 32 KO’s) in the near future. Warren, speaking to thesun.co.uk, said he would put together DeGale vs. Pavlik “in a heartbeat.” But first Warren wants to match DeGale vs. undefeated British Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves next.

That’s a fight that DeGale and Warren really like, and it’s a match-up that will gather a lot of attention in the UK. Groves, 22, is thought to be a future star in the super middleweight division and possibly a future world champion. However, DeGale looks a lot better than Groves right now and it’s a fight that you would have to favor DeGale in due to his much more loose style of fighting. DeGale is very similar to a young Sugar Ray Robinson with his fighting style, and very hard to beat.

Pavlik just got out of an alcohol rehab clinic and his promoter Bob Arum is likely going to match him softly for awhile until Pavlik shows that he’s got his sharp once more. I would be surprised if Arum would be willing to risk putting him in with the bigger DeGale, because Pavlik does poorly against fighters with good boxing skills and movement like DeGale. Arum might not like that match-up for Pavlik, even though DeGale has hardly any pro experience with his nine fight resume. But DeGale’s amateur experience in the Olympics against top fighters from around the world counts for a lot. He’s not like a typical pro with only nine fights.

With his amateur experience, you can add a lot more to DeGale’s talent level because of that. If Arum does agree to this fight, Pavlik is going to have to make some drastic changes to his game if he wants to find a way to beat DeGale. Right now, I see DeGale totally dominating Pavlik along the same lines as Sergio Martinez and Bernard Hopkins did to him in the past. Another loss and Pavlik could end up mentally crushed. DeGale has got the ability to make Pavlik look really bad in the ring.



Comments are closed.