British Invasion: James DeGale Coming To America To Face Andre Dirrell

Dirrell will undoubtedly be eager to greet DeGale on American shores.

James DeGale may have traveled as far west as Canada to ply his trade as a boxer but on May 23d he'll be fighting in the good 'ol US for the first time. For the British super middleweight will be battling Flint, Michigan's own Andre Dirrell for the IBF super middleweight championship in Boston.

DeGale may have wanted to fight at home in England for his long awaited title shot, but the money's good and the lure of a title is hard for the Londoner to resist. He's been waiting for his shot for a while, after all. Now that fellow Brit Carl Froch has vacated his IBF strap, he's finally getting his chance against the impressive Dirrell.

Indeed, in keeping with 2015s banner year, this should be a good fight. Both men have only lost once, to Froch and George Groves respectively. Here's the thing, though: both losses were controversial, which pretty much takes a lot of the blemish off.

Looked at through a certain prism, both DeGale and Dirrell arguably defeated two of the most lauded sluggers in Britain, whether the officials at the time thought so or not. That's impressive stuff. With Froch nearing the end of an illustrious career, it's hard to not see this upcoming throwdown in Boston as a changing of the guard.

While it's true British warriors have traditionally had a difficult time in Beantown, DeGale obviously intends to change the course of things. He knows he's going to be in with a real pro and has been training extremely hard already. Yet there's little doubt the extremely talented Dirrell will be eager to give his foe a warm American greeting come late May.

Boxing's big year continues.