Dirrell brothers in action tonight against Caparello and Truax

By Boxing News - 04/28/2016 - Comments

Image: Dirrell brothers in action tonight against Caparello and TruaxBy Scott Gilfoid: The Dirrell brothers, Andre and Anthony, will be in action tonight on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV.

Super middleweight Andre Dirrell (24-2, 16 KOs) has a tough assignment on his hands against former 175lb title challenger Blake Caparello (22-1-1, 6 KOs) at the beautiful Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Anthony Dirrell (28-1-1, 22 KOs) will be looking to add another knockout to his resume against the powerful Caleb Truax (26-2-2, 16 KOs). Both Dirrell fights are scheduled for 10 rounds.

The start time for the Dirrell-Caparello and Dirrell-Truax fight card on Spike is 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.

Where to watch: Spike TV.

Date: April 29

Anthony Dirrell will be fighting a big puncher in Truax. Both of these guys can punch, and it’s going to be one of those fights where someone is getting knocked out. I’ve never seen Dirrell get stopped before, so I think Truax will be the one that will likely be tasting the canvas tonight. Both of these guys are going to be throwing bombs from the moment the fight starts until the time it ends.

It should be a lot of fireworks. Dirrell lost his WBC title last year to Badou Jack in losing a 12 round decision. Dirrell was landing big shots in the fight, but he forgot to throw enough punches to get the win. Andre was in the audience trying to get Anthony Dirrell to use some movement and throw more punches, but he wasn’t able to do so on the night.

Andre Dirrell, 32, is looking to move his career ahead to get another world title shot after twice losing to Brits Carl Froch and James DeGale. While Dirrell arguably deserved a win over Froch in their fight seven years ago on a cold night in Nottingham, UK, Dirrell definitely lost to DeGale last year in May of 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts.

It was a good fight, but Dirrell dug himself a huge hole early on when he was knocked down twice in the 2nd round. Coming from those two knockdowns proved to be impossible for Dirrell to do. Dirrell hasn’t fought since then, which is maybe a good thing because it’s kept his body young by preserving it in a way.

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By not fighting, Dirrell has been able to keep his body more or less in the same state it was when he was last year. The good thing though is that Dirrell seems to have trimmed down a little compared to last year, and this should give him more energy for tonight’s contest.

Dirrell looked like a mini-cruiserweight against DeGale by the time he entered the ring. Dirrell didn’t look like the same cutup fighter he’s always been in the past. I think he may have had a hard time making the 168lb super middleweight limit for the fight, and it showed in the later rounds when Dirrell gassed out.

Dirrell wants to whip Caparello and then face IBF champion James DeGale so that he can avenge his loss to him from last year. The DeGale fight will very likely need to wait until Dirrell is ranked #1 by the International Boxing Federation because DeGale has other fights he has in mind such as a unification match against the winner of the Badou Jack vs. Lucian Bute fight this Saturday night.

After facing the winner of that fight later this year, DeGale will likely look to face the likes of Callum Smith or George Groves. Like I said, Dirrell will probably need to wait until he’s DeGale’s IBF mandatory challenger before he gets a crack at his IBF title. Dirrell wants to avenge the loss to DeGale so bad that he’s willing to travel to the UK to make it happen.

That’s pretty courageous on Dirrell’s part, because he was burned the last time he was in the UK, when he fought Carl Froch in Nottingham and found himself on the receiving end up a highly controversial decision. I mean, I had Dirrell winning the fight eight rounds to three with one even.

I thought Froch should have been disqualified for all the fouling he did in the fight, especially the body slam he did of Dirrell in the 5th round. That was so bad to watch. Froch was getting away with a lot of stuff in that fight and the referee seemed like he was asleep at the wheel and not calling anything. Actually, the referee did wind up penalizing someone; he penalized Dirrell for holding. He wasn’t even holding all that much. It was just so sad to watch that fight because it looked like an MMA fighter facing a boxer.

Also on this card is an interesting fight between unbeaten Jonathan Guzman (20-0, 20 KO’s) tangles with Daniel Rosas (20-2, 12 KO’s), who will be fighting in an IBF Super Bantamweight elimination bout. It should be a fantastic fight while it lasts.