James DeGale sailed into the Olympic middleweight final today then warned amateur boxing chiefs the nation's top prospects could quit over the political in-fighting in the sport.

The Hammersmith-born 24-year-old scored a masterful 10-3 victory over Ireland's Darren Sutherland to advance to the gold medal match against Cuba's Emilio Correa Bayeaux tomorrow and was quick to pay tribute to beleaguered Terry Edwards.

The head coach's position is in doubt with the Amateur Boxing Association, who chose on the eve of the Olympic semi-finals to announce welterweight Billy Joe Saunders had been suspended pending a disciplinary hearing.

Asked if he would stay amateur if Edwards was axed, DeGale said: "I don't think the majority of them would. I would not. Terry doesn't get the respect he deserves. We've all got respect for him and he's like a second dad to me. He's fantastic and all the rubbish he gets is not fair. Terry sat us down and explained it all to us and it's a load of rubbish. All we're here for is to win gold medals."

DeGale's classy display against an opponent who had beaten him in four of their previous five meetings could not have come at a better time for Edwards.

Despite qualifying eight boxers for the Games the 65-year-old has received little or no support from boxing chiefs and he expressed his disgust at the timing of the ABA's statement yesterday.

Edwards said: "This has been coming for a long time and my skin is getting thicker and thicker. I came here to do a job and the ABA obviously came here to do some sort of other job. I don't know what their agenda is but I know what my agenda is and that's to get guys through to the final. I just find the timing of it all unbelievable."

Today's fight revived an Anglo-Irish amateur boxing rivalry between the pair that has simmered for the last two years, with Sutherland previously having the upper hand with four wins from their five fights. DeGale, however, went into this contest having won their last fight and was in control from the first round today.

He boxed a brilliant counter-attacking fight to catch the eye of the judges, who elevated him into a two-point lead at the half-way stage before his accuracy put him six up heading into the last.

Having already achieved bronze, Sutherland looked strangely subdued as he bulled forward to little effect and allowed DeGale to pick him off, landing his best shot with a big right hand on the bell to end round three.

Edwards clearly expressed his fury with the showboating DeGale for taking that shot and the British fighter responded, continuing to skate around the ring's limits in the final round to score a famous victory.

DeGale added: "On my day I can beat anybody in the world. In the past maybe I haven't got the tactics or weight right or silly things like that. And now everything is excellent.

"This is my scene. Olympic final, this is a dream. Now I want to hear the national anthem [when I win the gold]. It is going to make me cry. He [Sutherland] was strong."