By Scott Gilfoid: Boxing fans are going to get the pleasure of seeing a really interesting fight this Saturday night on Showtime between WBC super middleweight champion Sakio Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO’s) and #8 WBC, #11 IBF Anthony Dirrell (26-0, 22 KO’s) on the Zab Judah vs. Paulie Malignaggi card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

This is an excellent chance for Anthony to show off his talent to the boxing world, as he’s only fought twice since his motorcycle accident in 2012. Dirrell, the younger brother of former Super Six tournament contestant Andre Dirrell, missed the entire 2012 year in healing from his injuries. He came back in 2013 and has picked up victories over Don Mouton and Anthony Hanshaw.

Dirrell looked rusty against Mouton because this was a guy that he would have wiped out pre-injury, but he was forced to go the full 8 rounds with him in winning an 8 round unanimous decision. Dirrell was poised for a title shot against former WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward before the accident. It’s too bad because that would have been an excellent fight.

Bika, 34, beat Marco Antonio Periban by a 12 round majority decision last June to win the vacant WBC 168 lb. title in a close fight. It was only due to Bika’s late surge that he was able to pull out the win, but still a very difficult fight for him.

Bika has a lot more experience than Dirrell, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether that makes any difference in this fight. Bika has been in with guys like Joe Calzaghe, Ward, Sam Soliman, Lucian Bute, Peter Mandredo Jr., Nikola Sjeklocam, Jean-Paul Mendy, Markus Beyer, and Dyah Davis. He’s been in a lot of hard fights, and he’s clearly not the fighter he was back in 2010 when he gave Ward a lot of problems in losing by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Dirrell, 29, doesn’t have much of a resume in comparison to Bika. The best guys that Dirrell has been in with are Hanshaw, Renan St. Juste and that’s about it. This is a major step up for Dirrell in terms of competition for him to be fighting someone like Bika, because if you were to go by Dirrell’s thin resume, you’d think that he doesn’t have a chance to win this fight. But Dirrell has amazing talent like his brother Andre, and he’s sparred with the best fighters over the years. He may not have fought the best, but he’s definitely sparred with the best, and that’s almost the same as him fighting those guys.

I expect Dirrell to out-box Bika from the outside the same way that Ward did in 2010. He’s got to know that it won’t work if he tries to get inside and fight Bika, because he’s too strong and he can take major punishment without getting hurt. Dirrell doesn’t need to be in the trenches with Bika exchanging big shots because it won’t work out if he fights like that. He’s got to use his speed and defense to hit and not be hit back by Bika if he wants to win.