JAMES DEGALE has had a long wait for his shot at the now vacant IBF super-middleweight title. He will fight Andre Dirrell for the world belt but to make the task even harder the 2008 Olympic gold medallist will have to go to America for the fight, after Warriors Boxing won the purse bid.
“They’ve got 15 days to give us the date. Talk of April 24 [for the fight but] I don’t know,” said DeGale’s promoter, Eddie Hearn. “It’s just so much money. The highest offer that we made to them pre purse bid was 700,000 [dollars] and the highest offer they made to us was 600,000 and they’re paying him 1.55 million.”
DeGale might be losing home advantage but he is earning a large payday. “He still would have done well over here,” Hearn cautioned. “But it is what it is. He’s alright. He’s buzzing.
“I think they’re talking about Spike [TV for the US broadcaster, which is] reasonable. They grew the UFC. ”
Going to America will have to serve as an additional motivation. His promoter continued, “I think it makes you grit your teeth a little bit more and go, ‘right go over there and do the business’. He’s obviously seen Kell [Brook] do it [win the title in the States], seen Darren [Barker] do it. There’s something about winning the title in America, don’t get me wrong it is a great night to do it in the UK but you get a lot of [respect] if you do go there and do the job.”
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