By Edward Chaykovsky
Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport is doing everything possible to get Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16KOs) to travel across the ocean to face Olympic gold medal winner James DeGale (20-1, 14KOs) in a showdown for the vacant IBF super middleweight title. The title was vacated last week by Carl Froch, who refused to face mandatory challenger DeGale.
Hearn is negotiating with Al Haymon, manager of Dirrell. If Hearn has his way, he would like to stage Dirrell-DeGale on April 25th at the O2 Arena in London.
"I can tell you that I am deep in negotiations with Andre Dirrell’s people right now to make their fight for the IBF world title, which was recently vacated by Carl Froch. My hope is to stage it on April 25 at the O2 Arena in London, but currently we are both pushing for home advantage. I am confident that with the backing of Sky Sports and James's profile in London, we can deliver him a home fight and a great deal for Dirrell," Hearn stated to Daily Mail.
"Whichever way it works, this is going to be a huge fight between two elite super-middleweights. It’s an extremely tough fight to call. DeGale lost a close decision to bitter rival Groves when they fought at the O2 Arena in 2011. Andre has been beaten only once and that was on a split decision to Froch in Nottingham. He has come back very strong and now has 24 wins in 25 fights - he really is a massive threat to James. But I believe our man can win this fight and go on to make history as the first British Olympic champion to win a world title."
