James DeGale Vs Andre Dirrell Does More than just Bring in Ratings

By Travis “Novel” Fleming

The battle between Andre Dirrell, 24-2 16 KO’s, and James DeGale, 20-1 14 KO’ s, for the vacant IBF super middleweight championship exceeded all expectations. The bout was held at the Agganis Arena in Boston as part of Al Haymon’s “Premiere Boxing Champions” series, and the former great fight city was treated to the best high level bout it has seen in decades. The good news for boxing is that this was broadcasted for free on major network television on NBC, so any casual sports fan flipping through the channels that happened to catch this fight will likely be back for the next installment.

Both former Olympic medalists displayed excellent skill sets, and courage, with Dirrell coming back to control the action and land the cleaner blows after suffering a couple of hard knockdowns that would have put the fork in most fighters, and DeGale remaining composed after suffering a cut under the eye that was the first major cut of his career in the second round.

Dirrell won the first round and appeared to be on the verge of imposing his will in the second round, after opening a cut under DeGale’s eye and taking the fight to him, when DeGGle took advantage of Dirrell not having his guard up and dropped him hard against ropes. Dirrell was slow to get up and appeared dazed, DeGale instantly jumped on him and dropped him for a second time in a corner before the round was out. Dirrell was slow to respond to the referee and just barely escaped the round on shaky legs. In between rounds, you got the feeling it was only a matter of time before Degale connected with something nasty in round three to finish the job he began in the previous round. I expected Degale to put Dirrell down for the count in the third, but Dirrell somehow regained his composure and began fighting his way back into the fight. By the fourth round, Dirrell was fighting as if the knockdowns didn’t even occur, and out punched DeGale to win his first round since the opening stanza. From then on, Dirrell landed powerful leads, shoe shined combos, and kept DeGale on the back foot to win every round but one from round four until round eleven. It looked like Dirrell was on his way to turning things around to win a miraculous comeback as DeGale appeared to fatigue, and have no answer for Dirrell’s attack. DeGale’s punches no longer had the same power on them and it looked like he was about to give the fight away when he summoned his warrior spirit and came back to out work Dirrell in the final two rounds to close the fight out like a true champion.

It was an excellent fight, of the highest pedigree. It was expected to be the best 50-50 championship fight of the year and it certainly lived up to the competitiveness that was anticipated. At the end, I scored the fight a draw. Dirrell won eight rounds and DeGale won four, but because DeGale scored two knockdowns that made things even on my card. I would have no problem with the judges giving a close victory to either man, they both fought well and had great moments. The judges awarded the decision to James DeGale and that’s A-OK, two them had respectable scores of 114-112 for DeGale while the third judge, Alan Davis, who must of been watching another fight, scored it 117-109 for DeGale. That is one of the most absurd scores since CJ Ross scored Floyd Mayweather, JR.”s near shutout of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez a draw. 117 means that Davis saw DeGale winning nine rounds when you’d have to struggle, and give all the close rounds to DeGale, to find just six in his favor. That sort of score is nothing short of disgraceful.

I would love to see a rematch of this fight. It delivered some of the best action of the year, and these two are so evenly matched that they could fight five times with different outcomes each time. Fights like this are what boxing’s all about. The PBC series started out with fights that had bigger names that, on paper, looked like they would be excellent, but turned out to be mediocre. It was a disappointment for boxing’s return to major network television, and seemed like it might not stay there for too long unless things picked up. Luckily for Al Haymon, and boxing fans, the last two PBC cards were the opposite, with fights that, on paper, appeared decent, but turned out to have three fight of the year candidates with Omar Figueroa vs Ricky Burns, Tomoki Kameda vs Jaime McDonnell and Dirrell vs DeGale.

Congrats are in order for James Degale for making history as the first British Olympic gold medalist to capture a professional world title. He has overcome a lot of set backs in the way of injuries and an early career loss by controversial decision to George Groves. Right now, Degale has a ton of options for big fights. Most attractive, of course, would be a massive rematch in an all British showdown with George Groves. Groves is fighting WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack next, and if he wins, the Degale fight would be even bigger with two world titles on the line in a huge unification grudge match. If Degale unifies against Groves or Jack, should Jack beat Groves, he suddenly becomes the most lucrative opponent for boxing’s second best fighter behind Mayweather in Andre Ward. This situation would be great for Ward as he has no legitimate threats at 168 lbs and this will give him the chance to regain his lofty ranking against a unified champion, without having to leave his division. Degale also has the option of a rematch with Andre Dirrell, and I hope it happens because this fight was great and as close as they get, but I’m doubtful DeGale would go that route, and I don’t blame him.

Acting145689210987Brad43167890