James DeGale is grateful opponent George Groves beat him when they were amateurs as he can take revenge and move one step closer to becoming world champion.
Olympic champion DeGale is putting his British super-middleweight title on the line to fight Commonwealth champion Groves at London’s O2 Arena on May 21, as the two former friends go toe-to-toe.
The pair attended the Dale Youth ABC in west London, where Groves beat DeGale in an amateur competition and the pair have since fallen out.
DeGale has stepped up the trash talking, saying he will beat Groves inside four rounds and hopes a title shot will follow soon after.
He said: ‘Do you know what, I’m glad ugly kid (Groves) won that fight all those years ago. If he hadn’t won, we wouldn’t be here now talking about this exciting fight, a match-up which takes me one step closer to becoming world champion.
‘The bottom line for Groves is that he’s chinny. And I promise I will expose that. He got knocked out as an amateur, he got dropped in training by Carl Froch in training and he was all over the place in his second to last fight with Kenny Anderson.
‘He’s the one who’s looking nervous at the moment. He looks scared in interviews, he’s been beaten by the size of the occasion already.
He continued: ‘I’m sticking by my prediction of winning inside four rounds. But that’s only if he comes to fight me. If he tries to get all technical, he’ll drag it out longer. But this fight is definitely not going the full 12 rounds.
‘Groves is fixated with emotion. He even claims this won’t, in a technical sense, be his hardest fight. Trust me, this fight will test everything.
DeGale and Groves will slug it out on the undercard of Nathan Cleverly’s world light-heavyweight title clash with Jurgen Brahmer, a night of boxing which will be broadcast on Sky Box Office.
And DeGale expressed his surprise that Amir Khan decided against having his fight with Paul McCloskey shown on Sky after the plug was pulled on the pay-per-view event and moved to the fringe channel Primetime.
‘I think moving away from Sky was the wrong idea, said DeGale. ‘The channel stuck by him after he was floored by Breidis Prescott so maybe he should have shown some loyalty to them.
‘But boxing isn’t just a sport, it’s a business and he did what he had to do.’
And with the London Olympics just over 15 months away, DeGale is excited at the prospect of revisiting the Games, but this time as a spectator, four years after he won gold in Beijing.
‘I can’t wait for the track and field events. They produce the most memorable moments at every Games so I’m hoping to be there for the sprint finals and hopefully catch some of the field events, too,’ said the Olympic middleweight champion.
‘But its not just about being at the marquee events, I’m looking forward to just being part of it all and sharing the moment. Hopefully my gold medal will count for something when applying for tickets!’
To apply for London 2012 tickets visit tickets.london2012.com any time between now and 26 April
