DeGale-Dirrell will be prime-time around 9.30pm in the UK
Friday 22 May 2015 11:33, UK
Saturday afternoon has traditionally been the time of the week when sport takes over.
Football, rugby, cricket, golf, racing, you name it, has - and still does - take over people's lives for those special few hours.
One sport that hasn't fit into that category is boxing, or big-time boxing, at least.
That is changing in America and on Saturday, thanks to Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Championship promotional company, James DeGale's world title fight against Andre Dirrell in Boston is scheduled to begin around 4.30pm.
That means Sky Sports 1 viewers can watch DeGale's attempt to win the vacant IBF super-middleweight belt at a prime-time 9.30pm.
DeGale has been acclimatising in Miami and arrived in Beantown on Tuesday, so he will be used to the time difference, but the new time-slot is another hurdle to overcome in his quest for glory.
He might well become the first British fighter to add a world title to his Olympic gold but he is not the first of our fighters to enjoy some Saturday afternoon success.
It was only two weekends ago that Jamie McDonnell beat Tomoki Kameda to hold on to his WBA bantamweight belt, and the Doncaster fighter conceded it was a strange experience.
I did enjoy it but I did feel more pressure.
"My fight was through the day, so it was different," he told Sky Sports. "I've never fought at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and before I knew it, I was in the ring.
"It just flew by. The fight flew by and everything just flew."
The Saturday afternoon slot may seem strange over here, but that's not all that is changing. Tune in to Sky Sports 1 on Saturday evening and you will see that long before DeGale or Dirrell climb into the ring, the show will have a different feel even from this far away.
You will see giant headshots of the fighters, their names in giant letters, picked out by an array of lights. They will then enter onto a stage and walk down a staircase on either side, as solitary figures.
DeGale's trainer and corner team will meet him on the ground floor and enter the ring. Then it will be what we are used to. But only then.
It was something that will stay with McDonnell, whose victory against the odds is made greater by his step into the unknown.
"It was something I'd never experienced before," he said. "It was an amazing set-up, the broadcast and everything was just amazing.
"But things out there didn't flow as well as they do back here with Matchroom. I did enjoy it but I did feel more pressure.
"There was a lot more people running round and with the timing, they were saying 'we're doing this and we were going to do it at this time, but we're doing it an hour later'.
"I dont mind going out there again and fighting on more of their cards. At least I know what to expect!"
McDonnell also encountered perhaps the most dramatic change taking place on the PBC cards: the possible disappearance of world titles.
The Doncaster boy put his WBA strap on the line, but Kameda's WBO belt was not. When Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson topped the bill in a Haymon card at the start of April, their respective WBC and IBF light-welterweight titles were not at stake in a catchweight clash made at 143lbs, three pounds above the stipulated maximum weight in their division.
That saves the promoter money when it comes to purse bids but when the PBC hit the screens for the first time in March in Las Vegas, WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman was, it seemed, not allowed to bring the belt into the ring as he took on Robert Guerrero.
And many were surprised when the winner was prevented holding his strap too high to celebrate his success.
Haymon is, it seems, attempting to go back to the days when there was one world champion per division and one belt to battle it out for. Fighters will have to fight the best to prove they are the best.
DeGale, at 29, might not be fighting if and when that plan comes to fruition, but he fits the bill already because he is only interested in one belt. And if he wins and makes history, try and stop him holding the IBF honour as high as he can!
McDonnell has shown the way forward when it comes to the sort of show his fellow Brit will be starring in on Saturday night - DeGale could be the second Brit in as many weeks to enjoy some afternoon delight.
Watch DeGale v Dirrell live on Sky Sports 1, from 8.00pm, this Saturday. The fight will be on around 9.30pm BST, with Carl Froch and Glenn McCrory in the studio.
