Carl Dilks and the The Olympic sized chance…Can “Dynamite” explode to victory?
By Jamie Albrecht
The vibrant landscape of Liverpool is certainly no stranger to sporting history. The boys at Anfield wrote the city’s premier football team into exclusivity via the brilliant tactical minds of mesas Shankley and Paisley. Elsewhere, in the world of boxing, John Conteh hammered his way into the public consciousness and paved his way to the World Light- Heavyweight crown, wowing both local and worldwide audiences with his media friendly good looks and playboy charm, and of course the fact that he was extremely capable when confined between the ropes, confirmed with wins over Chris Finnegan and a stoppage win over Len Hutchings for the WBC championship.
History and the past has been far kinder to Liverpudlian sporting ambitions than has been replicated in the present, but the latest and far more optimistic chapter may still be written in Merseyside prize fighting lore…
Carl Dilks is the man charged with shouldering this sizeable burden when he faces former Olympic gold medallist James “Chunky” DeGale on the highly anticipated “Magnificent seven” bill at the LG arena, September 18th. Expectation in the latter is understandably high following Degale’s brilliant amateur achievements, but a fight with Dilks is a venture into unchartered territory for a man whose biggest assignment for pay thus far occurred in May when he crushed the seemingly overmatched Sam Horton in five one-sided rounds for the fringe WBA International strap.
The fighter dubbed “dynamite” presents a far stiffer test on paper, having already competed for commonwealth honours, and even though he failed to outwork the African champion Charles Adamu, the account he gave was good enough to ensure that the fight was lost only by split decision and showed that perhaps Dilks has the potential to learn from the episode and rise again at domestic level. The lack of a total shut out in the result providing quite credible evidence to support this theory.
Should the bravado on display match the contest, fans will be far from disappointed. The ever vocal DeGale prophesizes a fifth round stoppage, which may suggest that his view of the challenge before him is not too massive. What must be taken into consideration however is that the success of this prediction would be quite a feat to achieve when an analysis of Dilks’ 16 fight professional record shows no stoppage defeats despite the 2 losses on his ledger. Dilks responded in kind by stating that DeGale will not go beyond four. Whether the walk matches the ambitious talk remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, Dilks will not be in Birmingham simply to make up the numbers. He will undoubtedly be using this fight as a springboard to higher status , and a clash with local rival Paul Smith for the British title, something that his opponent has also shortlisted as a by-product of this encounter due to its secondary billing as a British title eliminator.
So when and indeed if you tune into the September 18th fight whether as a hardcore boxing fan, or an armchair observer looking to fulfil your curiosity and perhaps quench your bloodlust by watching to warriors bludgeon each other, consider this; Carl Dilks could be offering us a little piece of history. An Olympic champion could be derailed from the track of his sizeable aspirations, and Liverpool, that cosmopolitan city with its proud boxing heritage and rich pool of fighting talent, could even if for a brief period, have another sporting son to be proud of.
The Task ahead is Olympic, and Dilks must rise to the podium. For the reward it seems, does far outweigh the risk.
