DeGALE IS UP FOR GROVES REMATCH
Wembley could host big unification clash
JAMES DeGALE is willing to join boxing’s big stadium club by fighting George Groves for a second time. In the five years since ‘Chunky’ was judged a loser to Groves in a close and very local London neighbourhood dust- up, the clamour for a rematch has ebbed and flowed.
In that time DeGale bounced back to win his world super-middleweight title while the Saint came up short in a frustrating trio of championship battles.
DeGale has campaigned with distinction in North America while the biggest moment of Groves’s career came in front of 80,000 at Wembley, albeit in a crushing second world title defeat by Carl Froch.
It seemed the twain would never meet again.
Now the door has been reopened, in part by Groves’s persistence, but also by the British public’s appetite for megafights on grand stages, such as the world heavyweight title blockbluster between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko, which is set to draw a 90,000 crowd to Wembley on April 29.
DeGale v Groves at that stadium, or perhaps either Chelsea or Arsenal, will come into focus if both win their next fights.
DeGale is first up in a unification battle for his IBF title and the WBC belt held by Badou Jack, the US- based Swede who is the other man to have beaten Groves for a world championship. That takes place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on January 14.
Then it will be up to Groves to finally beat his jinx when he takes on Russia’s Fedor Chudinov for the vacant WBA title, on a new year date yet to be confirmed.
DeGale says: ‘If we both have world titles the rematch can happen. It would be a chance for me to box again in Britain in a huge domestic fight. George has been chasing me lately. If he really wants it I’ll fight him again. But it has to be the huge domestic event which would give me the chance to box in Britain again.
‘It is strange how our careers took different paths after the judges gave him that decision in our fight. It was me who went on to win the world title and do well in America.
‘I’m in this big unification fight in New York and it’s only big fights for me from now on.’
DeGale, who heads for the US later this week to prepare for facing Jack, is giving himself two more years in which to cash in on his transatlantic exploits.
At 30, he says: ‘I’ve been boxing for 20 years now, since I was a boy. It’s hard, man.’
DeGale has been fully alerted to the perils of boxing by brain damage sustained recently during bouts in Britain, after which Mike Towell died and Nick Blackwell and Eduard Gutknecht were left in induced comas. DeGale says: ‘You don’t really think about the dangers until incidents like that happen. Then you realise how important it is to get out healthy, while you’re at the top. Not that I will leave boxing when I hang up the gloves. I’m looking at plans for a new gym of my own to help young boxers follow in my footsteps.’ DeGale expects to face a tougher Jack than the one who beat Groves 15 months ago. He says: ‘I didn’t think much of this guy when he first won his world title but since then he’s been improving. ‘He was better against George and he will come in against me with his confidence raised by that win. I will have to be at my best.’
To that end, DeGale already looks in fight-night condition in his final training sessions before flying to America.
His trainer, Jim McDonnell, says: ‘This is the best he’s ever been at this stage. Sometimes in the past he has regarded opponents as easy but not now. He’s in great shape and moving beautifully.’
Liverpool’s Callum Smith is the mandatory challenger to the winner of DeGale versus Jack and plans to travel to New York to study them from ringside.
But he could have to wait a little longer into 2017 if the sanctioning bodies rule that a unification bout between DeGale and Groves trumps his claim.