By Scott Gilfoid: #6 WBC Anthony Dirrell (26-0-1, 22 KOs) plans on putting on a boxing clinic in his rematch next week against WBC super middleweight champion Sakio Bika (32-5-3, 21 KOs) on August 16th at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA. Dirrell-Bika is the co-feature bout on the Shawn Porter vs. Kell Brook card, but this fight is likely to eclipse that one in pure excitement due to Dirrell’s speed and power.

Dirrell is going to box Bika this time instead of standing stationary in front of him looking to slug like he did in their fight last December. Dirrell was beating Bika at his own game in that fight until Bika took it to the next level and started rouging Dirrell up big time. Dirrell didn’t get in the gutter with Bika because otherwise it would have been a full MMA type of fight and not boxing. The referee did zero to control the fouling from Bika, so Dirrell took a lot of punishing low blows, elbows to the head and rabbit shots.

“They want me to box him, and that’s what they want from me. I’m going to give the people what they want,”Dirrell said to Club937.com. “I know it’s going to be an easier fight because last time I didn’t really stick to my game plan, but this time it’s on. I’m more focused and ready than ever. He’s looking past me and he can’t do that. I’m a warrior. I’m coming to get it.“

Bika is already talking about wanting to fight a unification fight against IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Dirrell sees that as a mistake on Bika’s part for overlooking him, because he plans on schooling him this time and not letting him get his roughhouse offense in gear this time. Dirrell is going to stay on the move, jab and attack in quick in and out flurries.

That’s what Dirrell should have done last time because it would have been an easy fight for him to win had he listened to his talented brother Andre Dirrell, who kept telling him to box instead of laying against the ropes and being a stationary target for Bika.

The only way Bika can beat a fighter like Dirrell is if he stops moving and just stands there in front of him. Even then, Bika is going to have a lot of problems with Dirrell’s power and hand speed. But if Dirrell moves around the ring and doesn’t give Bika a chance to get his shots off, this is going to be a shutout win for Dirrell.

Dirrell had huge success in the rounds where he stayed on the outside and jabbed Bika. When Dirrell would attack in long sustained flurries, he had Bika at his mercy. Dirrell dropped Bika in the 5th round after he threw a flurry of shots that had Bika backing up until he ran out of real estate and was put down. Dirrell can be very successful if he attacks in the same way in between boxing Bika.

It doesn’t work if Dirrell just throws one punch at a time because Bika answers back with combinations. But when Dirrell was throwing sustained flurries, Bika was too slow to fire back and he ended up getting overwhelmed by the punches. It was the same thing that Andre Dirrell did recently in stopping Vladine Biosse with a flurry of shots in the 5th round on August 1st.