By Jake Donovan
James 'Chunky' DeGale and Andre Dirrell finally have a date and location for their forthcoming super middleweight title fight. The two will collide May 23 at Boston University's Agganis Arena in in Boston, Mass., with the event to air live on NBC during a Saturday afternoon broadcast as part of Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions series.
The bout will mark the stateside debut for DeGale (20-1, 14KOs), a Gold medalist during the 2008 Beijing Olympics who has fought exclusively in the United Kingdom since turning pro in 2009. It will also mark his first shot at a major title, one for which he has waited since becoming the mandatory challenger nearly a year ago.
“Finally it’s here,” said DeGale in an interview Sky Sports News in the UK, who first broke the story. “Andre Dirrell is a very good opponent. He’s a tall tricky southpaw, like me, and while a lot of people say our styles will clash – I think they’ll gel.”
Dirrell (24-1, 16KOs) makes his second attempt at an alphabet title. His first shot resulted in the lone loss of his career, dropping a narrow points loss to Carl Froch in Oct. '09. The bout marked his lone ring appearance outside of North America since turning pro in 2005 following a Bronze medal run for the United States during the 2004 Athens Olympics.
There was concern over Dirrell's willingness to return to the U.K. for such a fight, though his handlers made sure to make that problem go away. A purse bid hearing was
won by Warriors Boxing, who submitted a massive $3.1 million
to secure the rights to the fight.
Warriors Boxing is one of several promotional outfits used by Haymon–whom advises Dirrell along with more than 200 other fighters—in recent years and more so since the launching of his PBC series.
The vacant title at stake was made available after Carl Froch opted against making a mandatory defense versus DeGale in lieu of a more inspiring (read: lucrative) super fight in the twilight of his career. Froch was on target to face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.—a bout that would've aired this weekend had it come to fruition—but an injury suffered while remaining active in the gym put the popular Brit on the shelf until at least summer time.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox