What does Showtime have planned. They have smartly taken over this live division. They are allowing him another showcase fight, but surely this has to be it. This division needs answers. Where does it go from here?
i wish showtime and dirrell and his people had more than fighting derek findley planned for saturday. i was very skeptical of dirrell early in his career. people talked so much about his blinding hand speed and impressive array of distinct, sharp, deliberate punches. that was all well and good in training clips, but i wanted to see him put it together against a live, game opponent. i watched and watched and he fought better and better fighters and was still able to handle them much in the way he handled young journeyman and tomato cans in training at the beginning of his career. i thought he turned a corner, turned back some criticism in wiping out and derailing the career of don hall, who, until that time i thought was looking like a good prospect himself after rebounding from a very early tko loss. he was cruising well after that. then his team put him in with look-good-against-me-even-if-you-stink tomato can shannon miller. my first thought was, great, here we go into prospect protect mode...that period of arrested development during which the prospect suffers greatly from the lack of hard proving. then, much to my surprise dirrell gets lined up with the capable tony hanshaw, fellow prospect and tough southpaw mike paschall and the undersized but rough, dirty and dangerous victor oganov...in that order...and stopped all of them inside six rounds...all the while looking as much like 'the matrix' as he did against lower quality opposition. that said, i think dirrell is ready for the next level, the next test. he doesn't need any nights off. his team should have him riding the tide toward bigger things than looking good on tv against lame opposition. dirrell can look great on tv against good opposition, so what's the deal here fellas? let's at least get him in with allan green, alejandro berrio, joe spina or, at least, durable, rugged, undersized kessler comeback victim dimitri sartison...just not derek findley...that was two or three years ago for dirrell, at best.
good post. Showtime must have bigger and better intentions for him in the near term. I mean a bogus fight like this on a Saturday must mean they have real fights in mind for him soon. He looks ready to me.
he was supposed to fight David Banks but he's locked up, not that David Banks is anything more than a bigger name than Derrick Findley.
you're probably right...kind of using this open date for him to post a few round demolition like a commercial for the next fight. i hope so...someone mentioned that dirrell's team was looking to david banks. i agree, banks is no serious contender, but i'd rather see him fight dirrell than findley...at least banks has been in with good enough fighters to make himself a known, low value quantity instead of an unknown, very likely low value quantity--even if only to lose.
