By Scott Gilfoid: 37-year-old Darryl Cunningham (24-2, 10 KO’s) is looking forward to being in the spotlight against Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) on Friday night on SHOWTIME.

This is easily the biggest fight of Cunningham’s 9-year pro career and he wants to take advantage of it by pulling off a huge upset over the favored Dirrell. Cunningham was recently scheduled to fight former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik but wasn’t able to prove himself to boxing fans when Pavlik pulled out of the fight because he was unhappy with the money he was getting.

Cunningham has now received a second chance at fame but against a much better skilled fighter with better hand speed, movement and defensive ability. It’s going to be a tough task for Cunningham to even be competitive, let alone win the fight.

Cunningham told fightnews.com “I am thankful that Andre Dirrell and his people accepted this fight. It gives me the opportunity to show my skills to the world.”

Cunningham’s biggest wins to date have come against Dante Craig, a former 2000 U.S Olympian, 39-year-old journeyman Antwun Echols, and journeyman Ruben Williams.

Those were nice wins for Cunningham, but hardly any comparison to what he’ll be facing on Friday night against the talented Dirrell in their fight at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon, California. Sometimes fighters can up their game a level or two when facing a quality fighter like Dirrell.

However, I just don’t see Cunningham having enough talent to get him through more than four or five rounds in this scheduled 10 round fight. Ward is too fast, too powerful and too experienced to lose to a guy at this level.