(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) By Scott Gilfoid: British middleweight James DeGale believes that #1 IBF Kell Brook (32-0, 22 KOs) will be too good for IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-0-1, 15 Kos) in their fight on Saturday night.
DeGale knows of Porter after having fought him as an amateur in 2007. DeGale had a huge size advantage over him and went on to beat him. As improved as Porter is now since the fighter he was in 2007, it wouldn’t be surprising if he beat DeGale now if that fight were made in the pros.
Super middleweight George Groves recently mentioned that he’d sparred Porter 10 years ago when they were teenagers. Groves must have had a huge size advantage over Porter as well just like DeGale.
“It’s a tough fight for Kell but he’s a talented World class fighter” said DeGale via Matchroomboxing.com via Thaboxingvoice.com. “It’s going to be difficult but I think he’s going to pull it out of the bag, I honestly do – it’s a big task to go over to America and take the title from the champion but I have every faith in him.”
One hopes that DeGale isn’t basing his prediction solely on the fact that he beat the smaller Porter seven years ago in the amateur ranks. Just because the 6′ 0½″ DeGale was able to beat the 5’7” Porter years ago doesn’t mean the 5’9” Brook will be able to beat him. We’re talking fighters from different weight classes here.
What’s interesting in this fight on Saturday is that Brook and Porter both have identical reach despite Brook being considerably taller than him. Perhaps the reason for that are Brook’s arms, which appear short for his height. So even though Brook has got a height advantage, his reach is the same as Porters. As such, there’s no size advantage for Brook in this fight unless he rehydrates up to 160.
“It is Kell Brook’s time to shine and I think he will,” DeGale said.
I’d give value to DeGale’s prediction if he didn’t mention how he had beaten him in the past, because that just gives me the impression that DeGale is assuming that because he beat Porter seven years ago, the smaller Brook should be able to do it too. You can’t make that jump because Brook is a heck of a lot smaller than DeGale, and Porter and DeGale was a size mismatch. If they were the same height, can you imagine how DeGale would have struggled.
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