ryan917 wrote:Degale will be sparring with Nathan Cleverley, Darren Barker and Sam Webb
I'd love to see how Degale gets on with Cleverly and Barker. Neither are as natuarally heavy handed as Groves would appear to be, but if he's indeed going to try and outbox Degale instead of scrapping, I'd say those two bring enough quality to the table to make for excellent preparation.
As for Dirrell, that may or may not work out for Groves. It'll depend on just how much of a gulf there is between them. Even if Dirrell's towing the line in terms of not going all out, it'll still be apparent to Groves and could knock his confidence.
Don't think that'll be the case though, if Groves can learn to adapt to a fighter as elusive, awkward and lighting quick as Dirrell, Degale could be in trouble. Personally, I think it'll play out somewhere in-between those extremes, Dirrell won't demoralise Groves, for the simple reason that he's a better fighter than Degale at this stage. Groves doesn't have to come out on top in sparring, he just needs to be best prepared for dealing with as slippery a customer as they come.
Another potential problem with using Dirrell as preparation is that Degale may well end up being the aggressor come fight night, whereas I see Groves playing that role with Dirrell in sparring and then having to play matador when it comes to Degale, if that makes sense. Either way, sparring a proven world class operator has to be a better punt than finding someone more similar to Degale, just not as good.
