James DeGale lining up Gennady Golovkin super-fight at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium
The Brit has staged his last four fight in North America
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Your support makes all the difference.World super-middleweight champion James DeGale is targeting a super-fight in London this summer, with hopes of staging it at the Emirates Stadium – home of his beloved Arsenal.
DeGale’s last four fights have all been across the Atlantic, in the United States and Canada, which led to him capturing the IBF title from Andre Dirrell before successfully defending it against Lucian Bute and Rogelio ‘Porky’ Medina.
His last fight – a unification fight for the WBC and The Ring title – ended in a majority draw against Badou Jack. The result meant he kept his belt but failed to capture the other two on the line that night.
And now he wants his homecoming fight at the Emirates, with one of Gennady Golovkin, Callum Smith, Andre Ward and George Groves set to be his opponent.
Golovkin would be undoubtedly the biggest name but it would require DeGale dropping down a weight class to face the middleweight king.
All four have other scheduling commitments at present but DeGale is confident they would rearrange them for a big payday in London.
“Golovkin?” DeGale said. “I walk around less than a stone above the super middleweight limit and could easily go down to fight this great man for the middleweight title.
“I would love to fight Callum Smith because he is the new young man on the rise who a lot of people seem to think could beat me. But I don’t and it would please me to prove them wrong.
“Ward, like Golovkin, is among those quoted as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It would be an honour to share a ring with him and just as I could go down for Gennady, I could go up to light heavy for Andre.
“The Groves fight is always there although my winning the world title, while he has failed three times to do that, kills him. But it is a big British fight in which I could wipe out the only defeat in my pro career.”
DeGale has a medical dispensation for a voluntary world title defence before being forced to honour his mandatory one against the IBF’s number one contender.
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