By Scott Gilfoid: James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) is so confident that he’ll beat #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) this Saturday night in their fight for the vacant IBF 168lb title that he’s already looking past the American fighter towards what he hopes will be a rematch against George Groves, or fights against Carl Froch, Andre Ward, Arthur Abraham and Gilberto Ramirez.

In other words, DeGale is looking past the talented Dirrell towards other fights as if he has the win in the bag. Oh, this is really bad. You hate to see someone’s ego getting the better of them before a big fight, especially when they don’t have the kind of talent needed to back it up.

We just saw Willie Monroe boasting about his talent before his fight against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin last Saturday night, and we saw how that fight went for Monroe.

Is DeGale about to be transformed into the next Monroe? Could be. In fact, that’s what I see happening. Dirrell has Golovkin type talent, and he’s going to show the world this Saturday, May 23rd, that he’s back.

“That’s a fight [George Groves] I would like,” said DeGale to theguardian.com. “I’ve just got to win this world title, then I can start half-calling the shots. “A lot of people talk about Groves and Froch. I do like those fights because they sell bigger here, but I want to fight the best. I want to fight Andre Ward, Arthur Abraham, Gilberto Ramírez, I want to box the best.”

The DeGale-Dirrell fight will be taking place this Saturday at the Agganis Arena, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Dirrell has the hometown advantage, as well as the speed, power, movement, defensive skills and ring IQ over the 29-year-old DeGale.

Everything is firmly in Dirrell’s favor in this fight. DeGale defeated Marco Antonio Periban by a 3rd round knockout in his last fight in November. But DeGale looked really slow on his feet, and his punches were slow and badly telegraphed.

This version of DeGale is going to struggle against Dirrell on Saturday, mark my words. Unless DeGale finds some power, skills and punching power by this weekend, I see him losing by one-sided decision or knockout.

“Once I win this fight I’m going to get a lot more respect. Andre Dirrell is known to be a good fighter,” DeGale said. “Winning over there will make all the difference to me.”

I think it’s going to work the opposite of DeGale. He’s going to lose the fight to Dirrell and wind up with less respect than he has now. It doesn’t mean DeGale won’t be able to eventually turn his career around after a number of years, but I don’t see it happening soon.

I don’t know how DeGale can even hope to beat Dirrell in this fight because Dirrell is really in a zone right now in terms of his game and confidence. He’s working hard and spending long hours in the gym. It’s going to be cold, harsh night for DeGale in this fight against Dirrell on Saturday unless he finds some speed, power and talent.