By Scott Gilfoid: Boxrec is reporting that super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell (20-1, 14 KO’s) will be taking on 37-year-old interim WBA World super middleweight champion Brian Magee (36-4-1, 25 KO’s) on November 17th in a TMT Promotions fight card for the vacant WBA World super middleweight title at a still to be determined venue in the United States.

Along with this mouth-watering fight between Dirrell and Magee, former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KO’s) will be challenging IBF super featherweight champion Juan Carlos Salgado (26-1-1, 16 KO’s) for his title. I’m not all that excited about this fight, because it’s a mismatch. I saw Salgado’s fight last Saturday night against challenger Jonathan Victor Barros, and Salgado looked worse than awful in winning a 12 round decision. He’s got no power and not much hand speed to speak of. Gamboa, #5 WBC, #8 IBF, #9 WBO, is going to destroy this guy no problem. I see this fight as more of a tune-up bout for Gamboa, because he hasn’t fought in ages since beating Daniel Ponce De Leon last year in September. Gamboa deserves a nice easy fight against a paper champion. After Gamboa destroys Salgado, I’d like to see Gamboa move up in weight and try his hand against former WBO super featherweight champion Adrien Broner. Now that would be a fight, if Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for Broner, would allow the fight to be made with Gamboa.

I see Magee as being ranked a tad too high by the World Boxing Association. I don’t agree that this guy should be #1 by the WBA, especially given that he was stopped by Lucian Bute in a 10th round TKO last year in March. Magee has only fought twice since then, beating Jaime Barboza and Rudy Markkussen, but he hasn’t beat anyone that I would consider good enough to deserve a #1 ranking. To me, Magee is more of a bottom feeder type contender. You know, like a 20 to 30 ranked guy rather than someone in the top 5 in the rankings. It’s still a good tune-up, stay busy fight for the talented Dirrell, who hasn’t fought since blowing out Darryl Cunningham in two rounds last December. Dirrell, #4 WBO, #11 WBC, needs a nice easy tune-up fight like Magee to get him ready to fight unification bouts against the likes of IBF champ Carl Froch, WBO champion Robert Stieglitz and WBA/WBC champion Andre Ward.

Dirrell, one of the most talented fighters in boxing, has been sitting on the shelf for the most part since suffering an injury in the Super Six tournament in 2010. However, like a Porche that merely needs a tune-up after sat in the garage for a couple of years, Dirrell is ready to hit the highways and start burning rubber again as he marches forward to show that he’s the best fighter at 168.

I expect Dirrell to toy with the slow as molasses Magee for three or four rounds before taking him out with some blinding combinations that Magee will never see.