British fans will remember Dirrell from his 2009 fight with Carl Froch. A fight most are loathe to admit he was extremely unlucky to lose.
The pre fight abuse of Dirrell by the British fans was something to behold with the American and his team rising to the bait beforehand, insulting Froch’s mother in fight week and acting every bit the loud, obnoxious and arrogant fighter he now concedes was just a part he WANTED to play.
May 23rd DeGale, and Dirrell will climb into the ring, and one will return home with an impressive red belt, and a second chance at stardom. Both of these men are at a critical point in their careers, and each has traveled a rocky path to arrive. Despite bringing home a gold medal in 2008 Olympics, DeGale was far from a fan favorite. The crowd erupted in boos as Chunky made his pro debut.
He later played the villain during the lead up to a George Groves clash, and further estranged his fan base.
After losing for the first time however, DeGale was humbled. He made changes, and not only sharpened his boxing acumen, but also polished his people skills. He went on to have a 10 fight winning streak, and win a European title. Now he is boxing for a world title.
This coming Saturday, Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions format attempts to deliver once again with the clash between Britain’s gold medal winning Olympian James DeGale and Michigan native Andre Dirrell for the IBF 168lb title that was recently vacated by Nottingham’s Carl Froch.
DeGale, who is hoping to become the first gold medal winning British Olympian in history to go on and win a world title in the pro game, has spoken to Sky Sports ahead of the eagerly anticipated battle of two tricky southpaws to insist he firmly believes that Saturday is his destiny and everything he has worked so hard for will culminate in championship gold around his waist.
A week Saturday, British gold medal winning Olympian James DeGale (20-1, 14ko) will attempt to make history when he turns road warrior and travels to Boston to challenge Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16ko) for the vacant IBF 168lb strap.
Should the talented Londoner succeed in his mission, he will become the first gold medal winning Brit in history to then go on and win a world title. Only Chris Finnegan who won gold at the 1968 Melbourne games ended up coming close – losing his shot to light-heavyweight legend Bob Foster in 1972 in the Ring Magazine’s Fight Of The Year.
On May 23rd in Boston, Mass, North London’s James “Chunky” DeGale (20-1, 14ko) will attempt to become the latest British fighter to travel to America and win a version of the world title, following Sheffield’s IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook who dethroned Shawn Porter in Carson, California, last August.
DeGale will contest the vacant IBF 168lb strap vacated by countryman Carl Froch, against arguably the trickier of Michigan’s Dirrell brothers, Andre. (24-1, 16ko)
Many British fans will remember him from his controversial SD loss to Froch in Nottingham as part of “The Super Six” tournament. A fight many Brits and Froch fans readily concede Dirrell was unlucky to lose.
James DeGale, who for this writer is Britain’s best and most exciting 168lb fighter, has today been talking to Sky Sports in the UK ahead of his attempt at shattering Andre Dirrell’s “American dream” when the two men meet for the vacant IBF world title on May 23rd in Boston, Mass.
DeGale will travel Stateside after purse bids for the fight were won by Warriors Boxing in an extraordinary $3 million show of financial strength by the outfit who are closely affiliated with influential manager Al Haymon.
James DeGale has been waiting for his chance for a long while now. The one setback on his resume was a close and controversial mixed decision to George Groves back in 2011 and since then has won European and WBC Silver titles. DeGale has really been making an impact recently since joining with Matchroom sports. In his last three bouts he has three knockouts. Two over undefeated fighters and the third over highly rated Marco Antonio Periban. His record now stands at 20 – 1 – 0 with fourteen knockouts, and he is ready for the world stage.
Andre Dirrell is certainly going to be a tough test for DeGale and whilst I would put my money on him, I can understand this is a 50-50 fight for a lot of people.
In an interview with IFL TV Eddie Hearn said that he was looking to have the DeGale- Andre Dirrell fight in the UK on April 25th and was confident that he could make that happen. He said regardless of whether they can make that date happen, he is looking to finalize the deal and would make an announcement in a weeks time. This announcement should lay out most of the details of that show and what the card will be made of and detail what the situation is between DeGale and Dirrell.
This is a great fight between two once beaten fighters, which will provide a new IBF champion regardless of who wins. Certainly this is a tough fight for the pair of them due to their styles, but an impressive win could set up a string of super fights against the other talents in the division such as George Groves, Anthony Dirrell, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and even Andre Ward.
The title shot for number 1 ranked IBF 168lb fighter James DeGale is confirmed and is likely going to occur on April 25th in the 02Arena in London. The last point which has to be confirmed is the opponent for DeGale.
Negotiations for a meeting between number 2 ranked Andre Dirrell are underway although it would seem the American is sceptical of fighting in the UK after losing a close and controversial decision to home fighter Carl Froch back in 2009. Eddie Hearn, the promoter for DeGale has said that he wants the fight on home soil for DeGales first world title attempt. Likely this fight will get made and it will go to purse bids to get the agreement.
The Mirror has reported that WBA/IBF super-middleweight champion Carl Froch will be forced to vacate his IBF strap today as he has failed to set up a fight with the mandatory challenger in James DeGale. This did not seem to be the case of Froch being afraid to fight DeGale, on the contrary he has been looking to find himself a farewell fight in Vegas against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, nevertheless this title will be up for grabs in the coming months and as DeGale is the first in line he will be fighting for it. The number two ranked fighter by the IBF is American Andre Dirrell, brother of WBC champ Anthony Dirrell. This is an exiting proposition as we could have brothers both as title holders in the same weight class.