Andre Dirrell to fight on February 2nd in McAllen, Texas

By Boxing News - 01/23/2013 - Comments

dirrell2342By Scott Gilfoid: Super middleweight talent Andre Dirrell (20-1, 14 KO’s) will be returning to the ring next month against a still to be determined foe on February 2nd at the Convention Center in McAllen, Texas. It’s obviously going to be a rust-removing fight, so don’t expect Dirrell to be fighting someone good like Edwin Rodriguez or Thomas Oosthuizen just yet.

The 29-year-old Dirrell hasn’t fought since annihilating Darryl Cunningham by a 2nd round TKO over a year ago in December 2011. Dirrell has had things going on with his life since then that has kept him out of the ring unfortunately, but he’s now ready to start fighting actively and will be looking to target the top dogs in the super middleweight division.

I’d like to see Dirrell face a nice fringe contender for his first fight back but I won’t blame his promoter 50 Cent if he takes the safe route and puts him in with a 2nd tier fighter. I mean, it’s been ages since Dirrell threw a punch in the sport and you’ve got to be careful that you don’t rush him back too soon.

Dirrell has been training with Floyd Mayweather Sr. in Las Vegas, Nevada, and he’s learned a lot of new things under his guidance. It’s going to be really interesting to see how much Dirrell has improved a fighter considering he looked very impressive in his last three bouts.

The only blemish on Dirrell’s resume is a controversial 12 round split decision loss to Carl Froch in Nottingham, England on October 17th, 2009 in the Super Six Tournament. Dirrell fought well enough to deserve the decision, but being that he was the visiting fighter, I guess he had to really but a beat down on Froch to make sure he got the win. It wasn’t enough to simply out-box Froch for 12 rounds while making him look bad. Dirrell probably needed a few knockouts to guarantee a victory.

If Dirrell can stay busy by fighting every three to four months, he could be in the position to fight for a world title by the end of the year. He’ll have to defeat a top guy to get his ranking in the top tier, but I think Dirrell can definitely do that. If Dirrell doesn’t get a shot at a title this year, then definitely in early 2014.



Comments are closed.