By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn can’t quite fathom why former two time world title challenger George Groves is electing to fight for a world title against Anthony Dirrell instead of fighting his guy James DeGale in a non-world title fight that would possibly make more money for Groves.
Hearn badly wants to make the DeGale-Groves II rematch in order to make money for the two fighters, and to give his fighter DeGale a chance to avenge his loss from four years ago. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen for now, because Groves wants a chance to win the WBC 168 pound title from the hard-hitting Dirrell before he looks to face DeGale in a possible unification match in the summer.
DeGale, of course, would need to beat Anthony Dirrell’s talented brother Andre Dirrell, who is currently ranked #2 by the International Boxing Federation, and is on course to fight DeGale for Carl Froch’s recently vacated IBF super middleweight title. If DeGale loses to Dirrell, then the potential Groves-DeGale II rematch won’t take place.
“Everyone knew that Dirrell was going to be given an extension by the WBC and now George looks set to have to wait till the autumn/winter for that shot,” Hearn said via the Dailymail.co.uk. “I understood Groves’ most recent offer from them was $150,000 (£98,000) – please can someone explain to me why George is going down that route when he could have had a massive fight with James for potentially TWENTY times the money? This game can drive you crazy sometimes.”
I think it’s pretty obvious why Groves is looking to fight Anthony Dirrell rather than face DeGale. It starts with Dirrell having the World Boxing Council 168 pound title. DeGale doesn’t have a belt, and there is no way that Hearn will be able to get the IBF to change their minds about them wanting DeGale to fight Andre Dirrell for the vacant IBF super middleweight title in order for the Groves vs. DeGale II fight to have the IBF title on the line for their clash.
I mean, I’m sure that Hearn would likely ask the IBF to let the Groves-DeGale II fight be for the IBF title, but given that Andre Dirrell is ranked ahead of Groves by the IBF, I don’t see that happening. Groves doesn’t want to just fight DeGale in another domestic level clash with nothing being on the line other than Groves’ EBU super middleweight title. Groves wants to fight for the real thing, and the only way he can do that right now is by fighting Anthony Dirrell for his WBC strap.
I don’t see it going well for either Groves or DeGale in their fights against the Dirrell brothers. Unless Groves’ promoters at Sauerland Events talk some sense into his head by letting him know that Dirrell is a really, really bad match-up for him, I see Groves getting sparked out inside 6 rounds by Dirrell.
The same goes for DeGale with his fight against Andre Dirrell on April 25th. I mean, I can see that Hearn is already looking to steer DeGale in another direction towards safer waters by looking for a lifeline by trying to get the Groves fight for him instead of Dirrell, but it doesn’t look it’s going to happen.
Unless Hearn can dig up another fighter to put DeGale in with for his next fight, I see DeGale getting knocked out by Andre Dirrell in a one-sided fight on April 25th.
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