Andre Dirrell vs. Michael Gbenga on Saturday night in McAllen, Texas

By Scott Gilfoid: Super middleweight Andre Dirrell (20-1, 14 kO’s) will be facing the hard hitting Nigerian knockout artist Michael Gbenga (14-6, 14 KO’s) in a fight scheduled for 8 rounds on Saturday night, February 2nd, at the Convention Center, in McAllen, Texas, USA.

The 29-year-old Dirrell was supposed to be fighting Milton Nunez, but he was switched out for the 33-year-old light heavyweight Gbenga for some reason. It really doesn’t matter much because Gbenga will out of his class in the same way that Nunez would have been, but it’s going to be a little more interesting due to Gbenga’s big power.

This will be a good warm-up for Dirrell to get him ready for the likes of Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler.

Dirrell said to mlive.com “It’s late notice, but like I said it’s a warm-up fight, so I really don’t know much about him besides his record. I told 50 Cent just to make a fight happen because I really need to get a fight in.”

Dirrell has been inactive since December 11 when he destroyed Darryl Cunningham in a 2nd round knockout in a very impressive performance.

Dirrell says he wants to get back in the ring in March, and from now he wants to fight all the time to make up for lost time. Dirrell plans on being really active so that he can get a title shot against one of the super middleweight world champions.

Dirrell has a couple of champions that he needs to settle the score with in Froch and Arthur Abraham. Dirrell lost a questionable decision to Froch in 2009 in Nottingham, England in a fight that looked like an easy win for Dirrell.

It was in Froch’s hometown, so I guess it’s Dirrell’s fault for not going for a knockout because that’s probably the only way he could have guaranteed himself a win in that fight. Dirrell beat Abraham in 2010 in the Super Six tournament, but he suffered a head injury when Abraham punched him while Dirrell was down on the canvas after having slipped. It would be nice if Dirrell could get a shot against Abraham to beat him again, but without a disappointing fight-ending foul like last time.