(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: Tonight we could be seeing the coming out party for unbeaten #8 WBC Anthony Dirrell (26-0, 22 KO’s) in his title challenge against WBC super middleweight champion Sakio Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO’s) on Showtime from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Anthony Dirrell is the younger brother of the well known Andre Dirrell, and he’s an incredibly talented fighter that is arguably in the to #2 to #3 in the 168 lb. division.
Anthony was supposed to have fought former WBC champion Andre Ward last year, but a motorcycle accident halted Dirrell’s big plans. Now a year later with a different champion, Dirrell is ready to take what he feels should rightfully be his when he steps inside the ring tonight to face the 34-year-old Bika. Dirrell is considered the underdog, but I have a feeling he’s going to make a lot of fools out of the betting public tonight by beating Bika by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision.
This is a really bad match-up for Bika because Dirrell can do a lot of the same things that Andre Ward did in his victory over Bika from 2010, but Dirrell has better power than Ward and he’s a little faster in terms of hand speed. Dirrell has the advantage of being able to follow the blueprint that Ward created in how to beat Bika by staying on the outside, using his jabs and throwing single power shots to the head. Dirrell can’t make the mistake of letting Bika get in close to rough him up, because that’ll make the fight a lot tougher than it should be. I think Dirrell can beat Bika on the inside and pound out a decision that way as well, but it would be a much more tougher fight for him if he chooses to fight Bika that way rather than staying on the outside.
Bika hasn’t looked really good as of late. He had to struggle to beat Marco Antonio Periban in a fight for the vacant WBC 168 lb. title last June, and before that Bika had problems beating the mediocre Nikola Sjekloca by a 12 round decision last year. The last time that Bika looked really good was in stopping Dyah Davis by a 10th round TKO in June of last year.
Dirrell has had two fights since coming back from his motorcycle accident in beating Dan Mouton and Anthony Hanshaw. He looked good in both fights. The bout against Bika is coming at the right time for Dirrell just when he’s shaking off the last parts of the ring rust. I believe Dirrell is right back where he left off after his impressive 4th round TKO win over Renan St. Juste in November 2011.
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