Photo: Casino/SHOWTIME – By Scott Gilfoid: The winner of Saturday’s bout between WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and WBA champion Andre Ward must face unbeaten #1 ranked World Boxing Council contender Anthony Dirrell (24-0, 21 KO’s) next, according to Dan Rafael.

The WBC has ordered the Froch-Ward winner to face the 27-year-old Dirrell next. This should be interesting if the winner of the Froch-Ward fight is Froch because it would set up a revenge bout where Anthony Dirrell is looking to get revenge for Froch having beaten his older brother Anthony Dirrell two years ago in a 12 round decision in the Super Six tournament in Nottingham, England.

Anthony Dirrell sits down on his punches a lot more than Andre and has excellent power. In his last fight against the powerful contender Renan St Juste earlier this month, Dirrell blasted St Juste out in the 4th round. It was especially impressive to watch how relaxed Anthony was in facing someone with power like St Juste. Dirrell was able to dodge most of St Juste’s huge mammoth shots, but he still took a few really hard shots but they had no effect on Dirrell. He showed a great chin and excellent speed and power.

I don’t even know how to begin to pick a winner between Dirrell and Ward. That’s too hard to pick because both fighters are very gifted. I guess right now if I was forced to pick one it would be Ward by a close decision. But Dirrell certainly has enough talent to beat him. I think Dirrell would handle Froch without too many problems as long as the fight doesn’t take place in Nottingham.

It’s too bad that one of the other sanctioning bodies isn’t ordering the champion to face Dirrell next because I’d prefer that Ward and Dirrell not face this early on. That mouth watering fight needs to take place in a year or two after Dirrell establishes a name for himself in the division.