By Declan Taylor
JAMES DEGALE has recalled his first meeting with “mad looking” Al Haymon and revealed why he decided to join the influential advisor's ever-growing list of clients.
DeGale banked $1.5m when Warriors Boxing, via Haymon, won the purse bid to stage the fight against Andre Dirrell for the vacant IBF super-middleweight title in March.
The fight eventually took place two months later in Boston's Agannis Arena with DeGale winning a decision, punctuated by two second-round knockdowns, to take the gold back to Britain.
It was the prelude to a maneuver by Haymon to sign up DeGale on the now-famous advisory deal, the first fight of which was won via another unanimous decision, this time against Lucian Bute in Quebec at the weekend.
Now DeGale has opened up about his relationship with the former music mogul, who is still yet to do an interview about his long-term vision for the sport.
Even many of Haymon's fighters, such as Lee Selby, have never even met their advisor in person but 29-year-old DeGale, who was paid another $2m for facing Bute, is one of the chosen few who have.
He said: “Of course I've met him. A lot of his fighters haven't – it's only the special ones who do. That meant a lot to me.
“When I saw him I thought he was quite mad looking. He's skinny, with grey hair, a real, real gentleman, so polite.
“He's tall and skinny. He's such a nice guy. When I met him he said: 'the man, the myth, the legend. James!' and gave me a hug.”
While the Londoner says he was intially won over by Haymon's charm, he also admitted that the promise of riches really sealed his decision.
“He's sweet, honestly,” DeGale added. “We sat down and he explained his background and where he has come from.
“Listen, the guy is basically a billionaire and all he wants to do is make money for his fighters.
“When his brother boxed Sugar Ray Leonard he didn't make any money. Now he wants to look out for us and I believe him.
“Do you know what it is? He's so humble, down to earth and he's paying us so well. Why aren't we going to thank him for that?
“You don't understand how other promoters work. He is the opposite. I want to get out of this with loads of money and my brains about me.”
When it was suggested to DeGale that Haymon may be looking to making his Premier Boxing Champions set-up similar to the UFC, where house fighters only fight other house fighters, he added: “It looks like that's the end game but that will take a few years.
“But I'm here now and we're doing it this way.
“He will put his fighters against each other no problem but he says 'if you lose, there's a way back'.
“Really it was nice to know he wanted me, long may it continue.”
