Andre Dirrell vs. Ossie Duran on April 12th in Temecula, California

By Boxing News - 03/05/2013 - Comments

dirrell654By Scott Gilfoid: Super middleweight Andre Dirrell (21-1, 14 KO’s) will be returning to the ring next month against 35-year-old journeyman Ossie Duran (28-10-2, 11 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California.

Dirrell fought last month in beating the hard hitting Michael Gbenga by a 10 round unanimous decision after having missed over a year of action.

Duran is a tough test for Dirrell, as he’s got huge power and a number of solid wins during his career. Duran has victories over Matt Vanda, Latif Mundy, Jamie Moore, Joshua Okine and Jonathan Reid. Duran has losses to Bradley Pryce, James Kirkland, Fernando Guerrero, Brandon Gonzales, David Lopez and Avtandil Khurtsidze. He also fought to a 12 round draw against Eromosele Albert.

Duran has never been stopped before during his career, so if Dirrell can be the first to stop him it would be a huge feather in his cap to accomplish that task. Duran fights at middleweight, and it could be a bit of a shock for him to be in with the talented, 6’2” Dirrell next month because of the huge power and blazing hand speed that Dirrell possesses.

Before suffering an injury in the Super Six tournament, Dirrell was shining brightly and making a name for himself in the U.S and around the world with his mad skills. Had that injury not occurred, Dirrell likely would have been a world champion many times over by now.

This is just the beginning for Dirrell. He wants to fight at least six times in 2013 to make up for lost time, and to get ranked high enough in the super middleweight division to get a title shot against one of the champions. Dirrell is targeting IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch’s strap. That’s the title Dirrell wants.

Froch likely won’t select Dirrell in a million years as one of his challengers to defend his title against because of the huge problems Froch had against him in 2009 in the Super Six tournament in the UK. Dirrell dominated Froch from start to finish, but ended up losing a highly controversial decision.

By the time Dirrell does get a shot at the IBF super middleweight title in 2014 or 2015, Froch will be long gone as the champion. He’ll have been either beaten by Mikkel Kessler or Andre Ward, and Dirrell have to face one of those guys for the IBF strap.



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