Dirrell: I’m looking to collect all the belts in one year

By Boxing News - 12/29/2011 - Comments

Image: Dirrell: I'm looking to collect all the belts in one yearBy Scott Gilfoid: Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) is looking to make up for lost time when he comes back this Friday night against Darryl Cunningham (24-2, 10 KO’s) in their televised fight on SHOWTIME. Dirrell, 28, wants to beat the 37-year-old Cunningham in impressive fashion and then use the momentum from this victory get him moving to capture all of the super middleweight titles in the next year.

Dirrell badly wants a fight against IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute so he can collect his first world title. From there, it’s either Andre Ward, the WBA/WBC belt holder, or the winner of the April fight between WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz and Mikkel Kessler.

Dirrell said this during the telephone conference call on Tuesday: “I’m looking to get the belts…If I can get all the belts in one year then I’m going to try and get all the belts on one year. That’s how hungry I am.”

Dirrell, his brother Anthony, and Andre Ward are clearly the most talented fighters in the super middleweight division. Bute is someone that has a good uppercut, but he’s mostly just a guy that hits and runs. He’s not really fast and has adopted a fighting style that faster fighters in the past like Roy Jones Jr. used. It’s worked for Bute because he’s faced B and C level opposition his entire career, and his new uppercut has helped as well. But Dirrell is a much better fighter and when he finally gets a chance to fight Bute he’s going to show him how much better he is.
Dirrell’s main focus right now is to win on Friday, look good and prove his critics wrong. There are than a few doubters out there that think Dirrell can’t take a punch, that he’s a weak-minded fighter who acted when he was hurt in his fight against Arthur Abraham. Dirrell has the medical exams to prove that he was hurt, so that shouldn’t even be open for debate. But Dirrell is going to show what he’s made of by beating a really good fighter in Cunningham and do it in style. And from there, Dirrell is going to look to set the boxing world on fire in 2012.



Comments are closed.