Mayweather Sr.: Andre Dirrell and Ward will be the future stars in boxing after Floyd retires

By Boxing News - 12/29/2011 - Comments

Image: Mayweather Sr.: Andre Dirrell and Ward will be the future stars in boxing after Floyd retiresBy Scott Gilfoid: Floyd Mayweather Sr. says he sees Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward as becoming the big stars in the boxing world after his son Floyd Mayweather Jr. retires from the sport.

Mayweather Sr. told boxingtalk.com “Andre Ward or Andre Dirrell [will be the future boxing stars]. I can see those guys getting to the top quick. Right now, Ward is in the kitchen, cooking up a lot of stuff. He may not be the action fighter that everyone wants to see, but he definitely has the potential to be the most talented fighter in the world.”

Mayweather Sr. took the words right out of my mouth. I’ve said this along that both Dirrell and Ward are the biggest talents in boxing next to Floyd Mayweather Jr. The thing is Ward and Dirrell are both young and have a lot of time. Mayweather Jr. has got maybe two or three years left tops, and after that if he’s not retired he’s going to start taking defeats due to his hand and foot speed slowing down.

Dirrell is already like a carbon copy of Mayweather with his slick moves offensively and defensively. And Ward is like a combination of Mayweather and Bernard Hopkins. It may not be pretty but he’s winning and beating everyone badly. Carl Froch recently said Ward has a boring style, yet Ward was able to trounce Froch in the Super Six finals with a boring style. All Ward has to do is fine tune his fighting style and he’ll be just as exciting to watch as Dirrell and Mayweather are.

When you get past Dirrell and Ward, there really isn’t anyone that comes close to being the next big thing in boxing. Amir Khan was recently badly exposed as a fighter that couldn’t handle pressure in his loss to Lamont Peterson, so he’s out of the running. Smaller guys like Gary Russell Jr. are fighting at too light of a weight to make it real big. There’s just no one else between Ward and Dirrell to take over from Mayweather when or before he retires.

For boxing fans interested in seeing Dirrell show his stuff, he’s fighting this Friday night on SHOWTIME against the capable Darryl Cunningham in a 10 round bout along with Jermain Taylor making his comeback against Jessie Nicklow in the other big fight on the same card. It’s going to be an exciting night with two blazing fast fighters in Dirrell and Taylor putting on a speed clinic for fans.



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