By Scott Gilfoid: The talented American southpaw Andre Dirrell (20-1, 14 KO’s) has agreed to face #2 IBF Adonis Stevenson (18-1, 14 KO’s) in a IBF 168 pound eliminator bout on August 11th at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The winner of the fight will become the mandatory challenger for IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch.

Dirrell is really showing tremendous courage by taking this fight, because already the following fighters have said no to facing the dangerous Stevenson: Mikkel Kessler, James DeGale, Tommy Oosthuizen, Sakio Bika, Edwin Rodriguez and Kelly Pavlik.

Dirrell is busy negotiating with the powerful Stevenson’s promoter and hopefully we’ll see the contracts signed for this spectacular fight.

Dirrell, 6’2″, is a southpaw like the 5’11” Stevenson, and also has blazing hand-speed like Stevenson as well. However, Dirrell is much more talented and can do a lot more things than the limited Stevenson, who is more of a pot shot power puncher rather than one with the ability to flurry like Dirrell.

The better boxer of the two is Dirrell, and he’s also the much better defensive fighter. Stevenson lives and dies by his power punching. If he can get to you early, he’s okay, but he tends to fade late in his fights. He’s also got a chin problem as we saw in Stevenson’s 2nd round knockout loss to Darnell Boone in April 2010.

This fight reminds me a lot of the recent match-up between Canadian knockout artist Renan St. Juste in his fight against Andre’s younger brother Anthony Dirrell. The fight was supposed to have been a competitive one due to St. Juste’s big power, but Anthony Dirrell made easy work of St. Juste, knocking him out in the 4th round. I see the same thing happening between Dirrell and Stevenson, because the talent differences are too wide. Dirrell is the much better fighter. Stevenson hasn’t fought anyone in his career other than soft opposition. It’s easy beating 3rd tier opposition, but it’s going to be a whole different matter when Stevenson steps inside the ring with Dirrell and gets a schooling.

This is going to give Dirrell an opportunity to avenge his controversial loss to Froch from 2009. However, I doubt Froch will still be the IBF champion by the time Dirrell gets a shot at the title, because Froch will get picked off before then by Kessler in their rematch later this year, if the fight gets made. If not, Froch will have his hands full in a rematch against Lucian Bute in Montreal.