DeGale: I will punch much harder than anyone Dirrell has faced

By Boxing News - 05/14/2015 - Comments

degale67 - CopyBy Scott Gilfoid: America’s Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) will be looking to win the IBF super middleweight title nine days from now against #1 IBF James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) on NBC on Premier Boxing Champions from the Agganis Arena, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Compared to some of the fights that Dirrell has, this fight should appear to be one of the easier ones due to DeGale’s lack of punching power, defense and his flat-footed fighting style. But for some reason DeGale feels that he’s going to make history in this fight, and that he’s going to be hitting the talented Dirrell with the kind of power shots that he’s never experienced before during his career.

Keep in mind, Dirrell has fought and arguably beaten both Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham in the past. You would think that those guys are much better punchers than DeGale, who is little more than a slapper in the minds of many boxing fans.

“When I get in that ring with Dirrell, I am going to be so much faster, so much more elusive and I will punch much harder than anyone he has faced,” DeGale said to Skysports.com.

DeGale isn’t fast. I don’t know what gave him the impression that he punches fast or moves fast. He’s not a fast twitch type guy. I mean, he’s not slow, but he’s far from being a fast puncher. Floyd Mayweather Jr., he is not. I would rate DeGale as having average hand speed. He’s a little bit faster than Froch, but not by much. He also doesn’t much faster than Froch.

DeGale moves around and seems to mimic the movements of the elusive fighters, but he looks so slow in doing so. He’s really just a flat-footed fighter that fights with his hands down by his sides, and who uses torso movement to try and avoid shots. Dirrell will be by far the much faster of the two in every aspect of his game.

DeGale’s only chance in this fight is to apply pressure on Dirrell the entire fight, and try and outwork him. In other words, DeGale is going to need to try and use the fighting style that Froch used in his fight against Dirrell.

Unfortunately, that style didn’t work for Froch. He got the victory, but he appeared to lose the fight by five to six rounds in my view. It wasn’t close. Since I don’t rate DeGale as being anywhere near as good as Froch, I think the Dirrell-DeGale fight could turn into a really bad mismatch with Dirrell winning 10 rounds to 2 or 11 rounds to 1 if he doesn’t knock DeGale out.

“He can expect a fully focused, strong, ambitious Olympic champion ready to make history and become the first British Olympic gold medallist to win a world title,” DeGale said. “I hope he is confident and is fit because he is in for it.”

Dirrell will likely size DeGale up in the 1st round, and then start out-boxing him from the 2nd round on. If DeGale is going to win any round in the fight, it might be the 1st. But after that round, I see Dirrell beginning to break him down and totally dominate. He’s got another slow twitch fiber guy in there with him, and this could be a very easy fight for Dirrell.



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