THUMPING JACK FLASH
DeGale to make fool of hero Floyd
from DECLAN TAYLOR in New York JAMES DeGALE is desperate to prove one of his heroes wrong.
Superstar Floyd Mayweather Jnr will be ringside on Saturday to watch WBC king Badou Jack take on IBF champion DeGale in a super-middleweight unification fight.
Mayweather promotes Jack and has predicted his man will cruise past his British opponent. But DeGale has other plans.
“It’s a little bit weird for Jack to have Floyd in his team,” said DeGale. “He’s one of my idols, someone I looked up to.
Flash
“It’s crazy but I cannot wait to prove them all wrong. They really fancy Jack.
“They think I’m this flash Londoner, Olympic gold medal winner that isn’t taking him seriously.
“Are they having a laugh? This is my life. This is what I have been dreaming about. I am not flash – just confident.”
DeGale’s trainer Jim McDonnell reckons Mayweather’s motormouth will not help Jack.
He said: “It doesn’t matter what people say to you beforehand, when different traps are set, you need to start working it out for yourself.
“Jack has never been in that position and now he has people in his ear all the time to build him up.
“I’ve been watching interviews with him recently and they are all there, giving him a boost. But 12 minutes in, when you realise you’re in with a scientist of the ring, you realise they’ve been bulls **** ing you.
“He will go back and stop believing what his corner has been telling him.
“The Mayweather connection has given him a boost, they have given him a lot of belief and they are going to have to work hard on that.
“But when James does things to him, stuff he’s not experienced before, that belief begins to run short. Psychologically they have been drilling it into him that he can do this and that.
“It won’t be until he’s in the ring with James that he will realise how big the task is.” WELSHMAN Lee Selby will defend his IBF featherweight title against Jonathan Barros at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on January 28.