Tuesday 15 November 2016 06:38, UK
James DeGale's unification clash against Badou Jack has been confirmed for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
DeGale (23-1-KO14) is putting his IBF super-middleweight belt on the line on January 14 when he takes on WBC title-holder Jack and both will be involved in a press conference at the venue on Wednesday.
'Chunky' and Jack retained their respective belts on the same card in Washington DC in April, DeGale defeating Mexican Rogelio Medina with Jack drawing with Canadian Lucien Bute, but neither has fought since.
Boxing has also been off the menu in New York in recent months and promoter Lou DiBella said, in an interview with ESPN, that the insurance issue behind the move away from the city was still to be resolved.
When mixed martial arts events were cleared to be held in the state, new regulations increasing minimum insurance premiums were instituted, meaning a lot of lower level cards had to be cancelled.
DiBella said: "We taking this head on. But we're moving ahead for 2017 on the expectation that the powers that be in New York State will have a policy available for us for January 14.
"We're also optimistic that the bigger issues will be resolved in a way that will allow both big-time boxing and grassroots boxing to resume in the state of New York. It's unthinkable that this law was passed when no such policy was available and the industry was brought to halt in 2016."
Alongside the boxers at Wednesday's press conference will be undefeated former five-weight world champion Floyd Mayweather, who promotes Jack.
DiBella added: "Floyd is out in Vegas but his attitude is, 'We're willing to take a risk to help New York fighters and New York boxing with this card'.
"I give Mayweather Promotions credit for stepping into a situation where they could have just done this fight in Las Vegas and called it a day."
DeGale recently said he was looking forward to going up against a member of 'The Money Team', as long as it was not Mayweather himself.
"He's got very good backing from Floyd Mayweather and we all know Mayweather and we know he is still huge, but he's not getting in the ring with me on fight night, is he?" DeGale said.
"It should be a good fight. Now it's finally being confirmed, I am on it. I'm in business.
"Badou Jack is an underrated fighter. He's a bit like me, he doesn't really get enough credit. Since he won the world title, I think he's an improved fighter and got better. If I am not on my game, or not on the ball, I could easily lose to Jack.
