By Scott Gilfoid: #2 IBF Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) is ready to take the vacant IBF super middleweight title next month against #1 IBF James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs) in their fight on NBC’s Premier Boxing Champions league. Dirrell sees a win over the 29-year-old DeGale as a forgone conclusion.
Once he gets DeGale out of the way, Dirrell wants to face former IBF champion Carl Froch in his first defense. Dirrell has a loss to Froch in 2009, but Dirrell doesn’t mind giving Froch a rematch because he’s confident that he’ll beat him.
Dirrell feels he was cheated out of a win over Froch in their fight that took place in Froch’s hometown of Nottingham, UK.
“Winning is the only thing I know,” Dirrell said via Fighthype. “I got one defeat; cheated but not defeated against Carl Froch. Once I get that IBF title, if he [Froch] wants to get a shot at getting it back, then I’m right here, man. DeGale first, then Froch. I know I’m going to handle the job,” Dirrell said.
I don’t think Dirrell is going to ever get another fight against Froch. I mean, Dirrell will likely have no problems beating DeGale, but I don’t see Froch wanting to get back in the ring with Dirrell ever again.
Dirrell had Froch’s number six years ago in putting on a boxing clinic to get the better of him. But Dirrell is now more of a puncher while still having his blazing hand speed and great defensive skills. I think Dirrell would knock Froch out if they were to face each other now.
Dirrell’s maturing as a fighter obviously isn’t lost on Froch. He has to have seen Dirrell’s improvement, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to face him a second time with Dirrell now sitting down on his shots a lot more now than he did before.
Froch has pretty stayed the same as he was back when he fought Dirrell in 2009, whereas Dirrell has gotten even better than he already was. Whatever the case, it really doesn’t matter how good Dirrell has gotten, I don’t see Froch wanting to fight him again.
Froch should in theory want to get back in the ring with Dirrell in order to try and erase the taint of his controversial win over Dirrell from 2009, but I don’t think Froch wants any part of Dirrell now.
Froch seems to be in the shutdown mode of his career with him looking for beatable guys like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Bernard Hopkins. Facing Dirrell and/or Andre Ward would put Froch in a position where he’d be at risk of losing to both of them.
Beating DeGale will open up bigger fights for Dirrell against other guys in the super middleweight division, like Gilberto Ramirez. I would say George Groves, but I think he’s going to be soon back in the rebuilding stage with his career after he faces WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell later this year.
I think Groves is going to get knocked out by Anthony Dirrell. The loss will take Groves out of commission for a little while as far as him getting additional world title shots. I don’t think the International Boxing Federation is going to put Groves into an IBF world title eliminator off of a knockout loss to Anthony Dirrell the way that the WBC put Groves into a WBC world title eliminator bout against Christopher Rebrasse following Groves’ back to back knockout losses to Froch. If Groves loses to Dirrell, he’ll have lost 3 out of his last 5 fights, and I just don’t see Groves getting put into position to fight for another title like he did with the WBC.
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