(Photo credit: Carly Gillis Photography) By Scott Gilfoid: In watching his brother Anthony Dirrell lose his WBC super middleweight title last month to Badou Jack, #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) is now more motivated than ever to go out and whip James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) this Saturday night in Boston, Mass.
Dirrell and DeGale will be fighting for the vacant IBF super middleweight title that was recently abandoned by Carl Froch.
It was a pretty shocking blow for Andre Dirrell to see his talented brother Anthony Dirrell beaten by Badou Jack because this was supposed to have been just a stay busy fight for Dirrell. It wasn’t supposed to be competitive fight. I think Dirrell overlooked Jack and didn’t plan for the fight strategy.
For a guy like Jack, you have to use a lot of movement, throw a lot of jabs and focus on throwing combinations when he gets close. Instead of doing that, Anthony Dirrell rarely moved at all, didn’t use his jab, and threw only one punch at a time instead of throwing combinations. It was a failed strategy for Dirrell, and he was unable to make the adjustments that he needed to make unfortunately for him. Looking for a one punch knockout wasn’t going to happen.
“No, I just felt like I wanted to win even more, it’s as simple as that,” Dirrell said via the Dailymail.co.uk. “As soon as I got off the plane back from that fight, I went straight to the gym. It just shows how much focus I have to win this belt. I feel great. I feel like a champion. I’ve worked my [backside] off and I’m ready to go.”
Dirrell doesn’t plan on throwing pot shots against DeGale on Saturday night in their fight on Premier Boxing Champions. Dirrell wants to take the fight to the British fighter DeGale, and focus on throwing a lot of combinations to dazzle DeGale and the judges with his hand speed. Dirrell knows that he’s not going to win the fight by focusing on throwing just one punch at a time.
He’s going to take the fight to DeGale, and force him to throw his lazy, slow, looping shots. Once DeGale starts doing that, Dirrell is going to counter him with shots straight up the middle and sting him. I think it’s going to be really difficult for DeGale to win any rounds in this fight because Dirrell’s speed is going to give him a huge advantage.
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