By Scott Gilfoid: Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that super middleweight talent Andre Dirrell (20-1, 14 KO’s) has turned down an IBF 168 pound eliminator bout against the very beatable Adonis Stevenson (18-1, 15 KO’s), according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

Instead of Dirrell taking the fight against Stevenson, which will take place on August 11th in Montreal, Canada, it will be super middleweight contender Don George (22-2-1, 19 KO’s) who will take the fight. Talk about your big letdowns. I was looking forward to seeing Dirrell thrash Stevenson in front of his Canadian fans on August 11th. This is terrible news.

It’s unclear why Dirrell down the fight, but my guess is the cash wasn’t right. I knew it was going to be a long shot for Stevenson’s promoter to get a talent like Dirrell in the ring anyway, because I figured they wouldn’t offer him enough green stuff to wet his beak. Dirrell was obviously at a big disadvantage here because he’s only once in the last two years, and with that much time off he wasn’t likely going to get what he felt he deserved. At any rate, we still need to wait and see what Dirrell has to say say about why he rejected the Stevenson fight, but it seems likely the cash wasn’t to his liking.

Stevenson’s promoter has had a difficult time trying to find someone to face his fighter with the following fighters saying no to a fight against him: Sakio Bika, Edwin Rodriguez, Kelly Pavlik, and Mikkel Kessler.

It’s interesting that the 27-year-old George will be the one to get the Stevenson fight, because he lost his last fight against Edwin Rodriguez last March in a one-sided 10 round decision loss. That right there should disqualify George for the elimination bout, I think. It’ll be too easy for Stevenson to win this fight.

The winner of the Stevenson-George fight will be the mandatory challenger for IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Good luck trying to get that fight. I suppose the Stevenson vs. George winner will eventually face Froch, but you can forget about that fight happening in 2012, and I have my doubts it will take place in 2013, if at all. I don’t see Froch fighting too much longer. I know he wants Mikkel Kessler and a couple of other fights, but I don’t see him sticking around too much longer, especially if he gets whipped by Kessler. Froch will probably wrap up his career at that point.