DEGALE VS DIRRELL
By Niall Doran
It emerged yesterday that Andre Dirrell’s promotional team Warriors Boxing won the purse bids to stage the upcoming world title fight between Dirrell and James De Gale, likely to take place in America in the coming months for the vacant IBF title super middleweight that was previously held by Carl ‘The Cobra’ Froch.
I was taken back initially to learn that their bid came in at a whopping $3.1 million dollars, substantially bettering De Gale’s promoter Matchroom’s bid of just over $2 million. Good news for De Gale of course, as he’ll be getting a larger purse now. However he’ll now have to go abroad to win a world title which is always a tough ask, but not an impossible one.
Although the promotional company who put the bid in were Warrior Boxing, they are heavily linked with the powerful boxing manager Al Haymon in the US – in what more than likely was another power move by good ol Al.
This fight will probably be part of Haymon’s new Premier Boxing Series on network television in the States, so to there will also be plenty of profile increasing opportunity out of this for the British De Gale, in terms of building his name Stateside.
It’s a fascinating clash of styles for me. With Degale vs Dirrell, you’ll have two very slick, quick and super skillful guys getting in there, pitting their southpaw wits against one another.
You’ve also got the whole US vs UK story in this one, and of course James De Gale will be bidding to become the first British Olympic Gold medal winner to win a recognised world title in the paid ranks.
On Dirrell’s side, you’ve got the fascinating family story going on at the moment where if he wins he will join his brother Anthony Dirrell as a fellow world title holder in the same division. Other than Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko at Heavyweight, I’m not sure if this has ever happened in boxing history.
Here’s a brief look back at the last time Andre fought a British fighter for a world title, which ended up in a highly controversial points loss to Carl Froch:
The post Degale vs Dirrell: Battle of the Technicians appeared first on %%Boxing News and Views/%%.
