The Future of Andre Dirrell

Although Andre Dirrell's future didn't seem to be clean ever since he went inactive, the good signs started to appear recently and it looks like he getting his career back on the track.

Ever since the amateur days, it has been clear that Andre Dirrell is one of boxing's finest talents. Despite him narrowly losing in the Olympic semifinals in 2004, I was absolutely sure that we were looking at the future champion, and basically everyone who has been tracking his career shared the same view as well.

After the Olympics, he turned pro, started progressing through the ranks and was doing what he was supposed to do. Everything went well as planned. Then the Super Six tournament came, and many people including myself thought that it was Dirrell's time to shine. Unfortunately, he was robbed in England against Carl Froch in his first match. It was absolutely disgraceful. He then defeated Abraham by DQ and withdrew from the tournament. That was in 2010 and that's when his inactivity started.

Now, 4 years later, after having wasted a significant part of his career, it seems that he is slowly coming back. He is 31 years old and doesn't have that much of time on his side anymore. However, I still believe that he could become the champion and leave an impact in the sport.

Regarding his future, which is the main topic, there seem to be some good news. In August, he finally came back and defeated journeyman Vladine Biosse via 5th round TKO. He looked fine, although the opponent was obviously over-matched. He showed that he still has the speed, skills and the reflexes which was actually the most important thing that fight was supposed to reveal. The fight took place above the SMW limit, Dirrell weighed 172lbs.

His next fight was 2 weeks ago against yet another "warm-up" opponent Nick Brinson. Once again Dirrell looked fine, although he was probably still a bit rusty, but he definitely showed that he is on his way back. He once again showed some good skills and this time won via TKO 4. He weighed 168¾, which was a good indication that he is planning to come back in SMW division.

His next fight will probably take place in December this year, which will be his 3rd fight since August. The opponent will probably once again be one of the softer touches but the activity is the key this thing year, and I personally expect to see Dirrell in even better shape than the previous time.

What will happen next year? It is expected to see Dirrell stepping up and making his way to the eventual title shot.

Dirrell is currently rated at both SMW and LHW. He is rated #9 by WBO at Light heavyweight (boxrec also has him listed at LHW), but I don't think that he is planning to secure a LHW title shot. At least not yet. At Super middleweight, he is rated #8 by WBC and #14 by WBA. He is also rated #8 by the Ring magazine.

The current WBC champion is his brother Anthony Dirrell, so he obviously won't be targeting that belt. As for the WBA, we have the usual super/regular titlists situation. The "super" champ is Andre Ward, while the "regular" champ is Carl Froch, who is also the IBF titlist (btw doesn't this mean that Froch is Ward's mandatory now, thus they should force the fight, or is there a special case if the regular titlist also has the other organization's belt?). Froch and Ward are obviously the most likely to be Dirrell's targets. Dirrell even said after his last fight that his objective is to get the rematch with Froch, but to be honest, I don't see that happening. And it's not because of just marketing, Carl Froch knows that he got outclassed that night and he'd probably try to avoid the rematch at all costs (despite those highly controversial fights always requiring rematches). The other reason is that Froch is on his way to retirement and is probably looking to secure one last big money fight before he goes away from the scene.

This would probably mean (now we're entering the speculation) that Dirrell would face Chudinov, Ramirez or some other boxer highly rated by WBA on his way to securing the WBA "regular" belt, then eventually face Andre Ward in a fight that should have happened years ago. And to be honest, instead of being quick to call out the boxers from the lower weight classes, Andre Ward should be quick to accept the Andre Dirrell challenge as soon as Dirrell gets the high WBA rating (which could be very soon).

Of course, there is always a possibility of getting himself highly ranked by WBO and targeting the Abraham fight, but it's unlikely that Dirrell would go that route. The IBF has James DeGale knocking on Froch's door, and I wouldn't be surprised if Dirrell got himself into that mix and eventually fought DeGale for example. However, I believe that the WBA path is the most likely to happen.

Anyway, Andre Dirrell is finally back and he's coming for the belts. He said that he is ready for the top guys like Froch and Ward even right now, but he also understands that he has to work his way up through the ranks first. I personally don't think that it will be much until he's highly rated by some of the organizations, so we could expect to see him fighting for one of the titles fairly soon.

Feel free to comment and share your thoughts.

 

Well then, I guess that you should re-watch the fight.

Froch got outlanded in virtually every round. If you are getting hit and not hitting the opponent, you can't win a round despite being aggressive and the opponent running. Froch could barely hit the opponent and was getting hit all night.