As noted yesterday, Frank Warren and others are involved in a new UK network dedicated entirely to boxing, called BoxNation. The channel already has several fights lined up, and one card will come on October 15, when Nathan Cleverly defends his WBO light heavyweight title against Tony Bellew, and James DeGale challenges Piotr Wilczewski for the European super middleweight belt. Cleverly and DeGale are doing some promotion for the channel already.
Cleverly: "It's good. I heard that something was in the pipeline for a long time, a new boxing channel, so I kind of kept it quiet and I didn't know too much about it, in all fairness. And the press conference today to really launch it and announce it, and it's better than what I thought, in all fairness. It sounds good, especially for the boxing fans. ... Training's going really well, and obviously now that TV's sorted we've got a firm channel to show the fight, free. Because a lot of people were wondering whether it was going to be shown for free or whether they would have to pay. But obviously on BoxNation now it's free, so that's great because we'll have a big audience now watching the fight."
DeGale: "To be honest I don't know too much of [Wilczewski], but the bits I've seen, he's a good fighter. The record speaks for itself, only one loss. Bits I've seen of him, he's tough, he's durable, and he can box when he wants to, so it's gonna be a good fight. He's a good fighter. ... Training's going fantastic. ... I've had some good sparring, I had a good week, ten days sparring with Darren Barker before he left to go to America. So that was pretty good and hard and intense. ... Every time I look at [the George Groves fight], it was very controversial, very close, and end of the day, a lot of people thought I won. But hey, that's how the cookie crumbles, at the end of the day, there's no point in moaning and whatever. He's the one that got a W, so move on. I'm moving on to bigger and better things. I'm boxing for the European title, and hopefully in the next six months or so, that fight can happen again, we can make that happen again."
Scott's Take: DeGale also praised Frank Warren for signing Groves, and I have to say I've been fairly impressed with how he's handled it all. It was a close fight, there was an argument he won, and it was a personal, intense fight between guys who don't like each other, and yet DeGale really hasn't complained much at all. He just feels he could have gotten the scores, and has admitted his mistakes and faults in that fight. I favor him heavily against Wilczewski on October 15, and still think he's a top young talent.