By Terence Dooley

Adam Booth guided George Groves to a decision win over London rival James DeGale in May 2011 so he knows a lot about the 29-year-old southpaw.  Booth believes that the 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist has improved since that big night at London’s O2 Arena and has enough in his arsenal to defeat Michigan's Andre Dirrell  for the vacant IBF Super middleweight title in Boston later tonight.

Booth took Ireland’s Andy Lee to the WBO title last year; he also guided David Haye to the cruiserweight championship and a WBA title triumph.  A proven quantity at world-level, Booth knows what it takes to get to the top and he told Sky Sports News that DeGale has shown enough in recent fights to go into tonight’s fight confident of victory.

“James's improvements have come over a short space of time because for the majority of his career, from what I saw, he was lacking certain things,” said Booth.  “He couldn't break out of his set mould, but he has done that over his last couple of fights.”

DeGale, 20-1 (14), weighed in at 167.2 lbs at yesterday’s weigh-in, Dirrell, 24-1 (16), hit 167.8.  The two fighters went head-to-head, with DeGale claiming a psychological victory following their trips to the scales.

“He told me that it's just got serious—I told him it was serious two months ago,” said DeGale.  “I am ready and I am good to go.  I said to him to make sure that he comes to have a proper fight, don’t try to nick the title.  We'll see, fight night is [today] so it's all on and I'll do my talking in the ring.”

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