DeGale vs King To Take Place on Khan-Salita Card

By Terence Dooley

James DeGale fights Nathan King over six three-minute rounds on the undercard of Amir Khan’s WBA light-welterweight defence against Dmitriy Salita this Saturday night and ‘Chunky’ has revealed that his innate boxing ability was boosted by childhood ballet training.

“I left school in Year Nine but in Year Seven and part of Year Eight (aged 11-12) I went to Barbara Speake stage school and did all different kinds of dance and acting and this and that.  But I half grew out of that and boxing took over.  But yes, I did bits and pieces,” admitted DeGale.

“I didn't really enjoy the ballet, to be honest, I always forgot my ballet shoes and got detention!  But apart from that it was all right.  It most definitely helped with the footwork for my boxing though.  When you see me as an amateur, my footwork is unbelievable.  Dancing definitely helped me with that.  It was a bit of a weird mix, imagine me doing ballet and boxing!”

DeGale is in good company, Frank Bruno turned to dancing in a bid to pep up his footwork late in his career.  Frank, though, was more a twitcher than switcher when under heavy pressure.  DeGale is moving up the British super-middleweight rankings, he is 4-0 (3) and is eyeing a title fight of some type in 2010.

King is 12-14 (1) and on a five fight losing streak.  However, the Welshman has tussled with Tony Quigley, Kenny Anderson and Tony Dodson in recent bouts.  Indeed, he extended Kenny the full ten rounds in their Celtic super-middleweight title showdown.

The remaining tickets for the Khan bill are available from:

Metro Radio Arena
0844 248 5013 (dedicated line)
www.metroradioarena.co.uk

Sports Corporation
0845 163 0845
www.sportscorporation.com

See Tickets
0871 220 0260
www.seetickets.com

Amir Khan v Dmitriy Salita is live on Sky Box Office and in high definition on Sky Box Office HD on Saturday the 5th of December. To order the fight call: 08442 410 888

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