By Thomas Cowan: American super middleweight Andre Dirrell will be making his comeback on Saturday against Colombian middleweight Milton Nunez. As Dirrell has only fought once in almost three years, it would have been unreasonable for anyone to expect him to take a tough fight. This is why I was shocked to read that Dirrell was facing a “tough” opponent with “good talent” and “second-to-none power”.
Now, knowing the writer who wrote that article thinks Dirrell’s the greatest thing to come out of USA since the Apollo 11 spacecraft, I thought I’d do a bit of research on Nunez because I’d never heard of him. I’ll sum up his career as quick as I can.
Turning pro in 2006, Nunez fought 2 fights that year and 9 in 2007, winning them all. Although this sounds impressive, the Colombian faced two debutants and 9 other guys with 0 wins and 26 losses between them. In 2008, Nunez stepped up a level to face his fellow Colombian, Nilson Julio Tapia. Tapia knocked him out in 75 seconds.
Nunez then beat two more debutantes to try and build his confidence before a draw with another fellow Colombian, Segundo Herrera, a fighter with a 2-9 record. He continued 2008 by beating Johnny De Horta, a guy with a 0-2 record, followed by Ignacio Solar who was coming in off 12 losses and a draw from his last 13 fights. He wrapped up the year by knocking out inexperienced Jose Antonio Cervantes, who entered the fight licking his wounds from a first round knockout loss and had 7 wins against fighters with 2 wins between them.
In 2009, Nunez beat Diego Castillo who hadn’t beaten a credible opponent since 2000, followed by victories against two more win-less fighters which took him into 2010. Another victory against Anibal Miranda, who had 13 straight losses to his name, somehow earned Nunez a crack at the interim WBA middleweight title against Gennady Golovkin. Nunez lasted 1 round. After beating Javier Meza, who had a record of 1 win and 1 loss, Nunez fought Hugo Kapersk in 2011. The Frenchman finished Nunez inside a round.
Since then, Nunez has beaten win-less fighters Howard Cassiani and Raul Mosquera. Those wins came either side of a decision loss to Deandre Latimore last year, the first time Nunez fought anyone half-decent and didn’t get destroyed. In the last few months, Nunez has been brutally knocked out by Jorge Melendez, a fight that lasted 90 seconds and a decision loss to 47th ranked middleweight Matt Korobov. Nunez’s last fight was a win against Freddy Barrios, who has a 2-25 record.
I’m not trying to insult Dirrell for taking an easy fight, it’s the sensible thing to do after such a long time out and I think he will work his way back up if he fights against decent opponents in his next fights. All I’m saying is, let’s not act like the any of the top super middleweight fighters will be trembling with fear if Dirrell knocks Nunez out in 60 seconds. Certain writers shouldn’t be trying to con fans into thinking that this is a tough fight, because it just isn’t.
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