By Scott Gilfoid: #1 IBF James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) currently is ranked higher than the #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) ahead of their clash for the vacant IBF super middleweight title next month on May 23rd, but Dirrell is still seen as the favorite by the odds-makers.
They obviously see that Dirrell has the superior experience, hand speed, defense, mobility and power compared to DeGale. But this isn’t stopping DeGale from believing that he’s going to win the fight. Indeed, DeGale is so confident that he’s already looking beyond the Dirrell fight towards fights against the likes of Carl Froch, George Groves, Andre Ward and Arthur Abraham.
Those are all good little money fights for DeGale if they happen in the future, but the problem is DeGale is going to have an awfully tough time getting any of them if he gets battered and beaten by the talented Dirrell next month in their fight at the Agganis Arena, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
The fact that the International Boxing Federation has DeGale ranked No.1 above Dirrell means little, because the IBF is the same sanctioning body that had welterweight Jo Jo Dan ranked #1 above the likes of Tim Bradley, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter and Devon Alexander. The IBF currently has Frankie Gavin ranked No.5 with their organization above Shawn Porter, Diego Chaves and Devon Alexander.
“I’m up against it on the 23rd of May, but I’m confident I’m going to get in there and make history,” DeGale said via Sky Sports. “I’m just focused on the 23rd and beating Andre Dirrell because that’s a very, very hard fight. When I get through that fight, there’s some big fights out there, and the future if looking good. There’s George Groves if he wants to fight me. There’s bigger fights out there in unification fights against Andre Ward and Arthur Abraham.”
DeGale is trying to become the first British Olympic gold medalist to capture a world title. The fact that it’s never happened before tells you a lot about the type of fighters that when gold medals in the Olympics. It’s a much different game than the pros, and a lot of the scoring of the amateur fights is confusing. In many cases you’ll see one guy seemingly dominate another fighter and yet still lose. That’s why the Olympics doesn’t show you anything about who the better fighter is or who will go onto to become a better fighter in the pros in my view.
Getting past Dirrell may prove to be next to impossible for DeGale because he really doesn’t match up in any one area at all. I mean, there’s nothing in DeGale’s game that is superior to Dirrell. The only thing that the 29-year-old DeGale has going for him is he’s a couple of years younger than Dirrell, but that’s not a big deal because we’re only talking about two years. It’s going to be tough for DeGale because he’s not fighting in the UK, where he might have a chance of winning a controversial decision, and he’s fighting someone who is much faster, stronger, and versatile than him in Dirrell.
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