By Jim Dower: Former WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell (30-1, 24 KOs) gave the over-matched 21-year-old Norbert Nemesapati (24-5, 17 KOs) a methodical beating on Friday night in stopping him in the 6th round on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the Hialeah Park & Racing Casino in Hialeah, Florida.
The fight was halted by referee James Warring at 2:59 of the 6th round due to Nemesapati having had enough. Dirrell, 32, won by a 6th round technical knockout. After the fight was over, Dirrell did s back-flip in celebration.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
#2 WBC Dirrell was hitting Nemesapati at will with shots in all six rounds of the fight Dirrell hurt Nemesapati with an avalanche of body shots in round 3. Nemesapati had been able to handle Dirrell’s head shots in the first two rounds without any problems, and he hitting him back on occasion. However, Dirrell’s body shots changed the entire flow of the fight, as Nemesapati was hurt and retreated from Dirrell in the 3rd round the nonstop body blows. The way that Dirrell threw almost all body shots in that round was impressive, as he did nothing else in round. What Dirrell discovered was that Nemesapati couldn’t take body shots nearly as well as he could getting hit to the head.
In the 4th round, Dirrell went back to head-hunting Nemesapati and he wasn’t nearly as effective. At one point in round, Dirrell hit Nemesapati with seven consecutive right hands to the head without any let up. The referee was watching closely and looked to be on the verge of stopping the fight at one point due to Nemesapati taking so much punishment and not throwing anything back.
Dirrell put his hands behind his back in round 5, daring Nemesapati to hit him with something. When Nemesapati chose not to throw anything, Dirrell ripped a vicious three-punch combination that caused the Hungarian fighter to retreat to the ropes to cover up from the flurry of shots from the hard hitting Dirrell.
The referee warned Nemesapati’s corner after the 5th round that he was going to stop the contest if he didn’t start showing him some offense because he wasn’t throwing many punches. He was just taking one vicious head shot after another from Dirrell.
In round 6, Dirrell looked tired, and didn’t attack with the same severity as he had in the first five rounds. Nemesapati was able to land a number of punches in the round. However, Nemesapati lacked the punching power to worry Dirrell. His shots were mostly slapping punches. Dirrell finished the round landing some big shots, but he clearly looked fatigued.
Nemesapati didn’t have the punching power to make this a fight of it. I know the guy is only 21, but if he can’t develop his punching power, he’s going to have problems in the sport. He’s obviously in demand by top fighters like Callum Smith and Dirrell due to his ability to absorb punishment and give fighters rounds without risk, but he could be a good if he developed his power. Nemesapati is only 21, so there’s a chance that he could get stronger at some point in the future.
All in all, it was good performance from Dirrell. He matched the 6th round stoppage of Nemesapati that unbeaten #1 WBC Callum Smith recorded in 2016. However, Smith looked stronger in stopping Nemesapati, and he look tired like Dirrell did. If Dirrell is going to be able to compete with Smith or the winner of the Badou Jack vs. James DeGale fight, he’s going to need to be able to fight hard for a full 12 rounds. Dirrell looked really tired in the 6th. He can’t be tiring out like that if he wants to be able to beat quality fighters like Jack, DeGale or Callum Smith. Those guys can bring it, and they’re not going to fade out so quickly the way that Dirrell did. Dirrell did show improvement against Nemesapati in his mobility. Dirrell was able to move around quickly at times in cutting off the ring on Nemesapati. That was a problem that Dirrell had against Badou Jack in his loss to him. Dirrell was plodding in that fight, and unable to escape the pressure that was being put on him.
Premier Boxing Champions need to have guys like Dirrell and Erislandy Lara fighting better opposition on their cards. Dirrell’s tonight wasn’t even a fight. It was like watching him beat up a punching bag with arms. Likewise, Lara’s match in the main event against Yuri Foreman is expected to be a really poor mismatch as well. It’s like the equivalent of a train wreck. Lara and Dirrell have enough talent to be able to compete against better fighters than this without worry. I think the boxing fans would like to see them facing better opponents. With Lara being the WBA junior middleweight champion, he owes it to the fans to be fighting better opposition, especially with this being his fifth defense of his WBA title.
For Dirrell, this was his third straight victory since losing his WBC 168lb title two years ago to Badou Jack by a 12 round decision. Dirrell’s other two wins came against Marco Antonio Rubio and Caleb Truax. Dirrell could get a title shot at the WBC belt either in late 2017 or early 2018. It depends. If Callum Smith picks up the IBF/WBC titles from the winner of the DeGale-Jack fight, he might want to opt for a unification match against the winner of the George Groves vs. Fedor Chudinov fight.
If Groves picks up the WBA 168lb title, then a fight between him and Smith would be huge in the UK. Dirrell would have to wait on that fight. Under the worst case scenario, Dirrell might need to wait until 2018 before he gets a shot at the WBC title. He could even be 2019 depending on what happens with those series of important fights.
Dirrell doesn’t have the cache that Smith and Groves has going for them, because there’s more money involved with those fights in the UK. Dirrell might need to keep himself busy for a while with a set of fights. Hopefully, Dirrell starts facing better opposition than what we’ve seen in his last three fights, because he’s capable of beating better fighters. More importantly, Dirrell needs to keep his boxing skills sharp. He can’t do that if he’s going to be fighting guys like Nemesapati.
