It was all going so well.
Andre Dirrell had scored what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. He was granted a spot on Showtime’s Super Six tournament–a round robin battle of some of the best 168 pounders in the world–to determine super middleweight supremacy. He was certainly one of the underdogs in the series, along with another young American fighter–Andre Ward.
He drew Carl Froch first. Froch was relatively unknown to American fans at this point–he had just come off a fantastic come-from-behind 12th round knockout of Jermain Taylor to secure his spot in the tourney. Dirrell and Froch met on October 17, 2009. To be blunt, the fight sucked. Dirrell was hesitant to engage, and that’s putting it very nicely, and Froch had trouble landing anything of note. It was a close bout, with Froch getting the nod via split decision.
Dirrell’s back was firmly against the wall. One more loss and he would be eliminated from the tournament. He drew Arthur Abraham next. Abraham was a middleweight butcher, one of the more feared fighters in the world at the time, who made the jump to 168 to enter the tournament. He destroyed Taylor in his first tourney fight, and was favored to do the same to Dirrell. Except Dirrell turned in an astounding performance.
He had clearly learned quite a bit from his bout with Froch, and the tentative, hesitant fighter from that fight was long gone. In his place was a nasty southpaw who fired hard jabs and combinations, circling away while Abraham fired wide punches like a drunkard trying to swat flies. Dirrell dominated nearly every second of the fight. It should have been his breakout performance. Instead, he left the fight a concussed mess.
One sucker punch was all it took to utterly derail his career. Abraham, embarrassed and losing badly, took advantage when Dirrell slipped to the canvas in the 11th round. He wound up while referee Laurence Cole took a quiet snooze about 20 feet away, and belted a prone Dirrell on the jaw. Dirrell won via disqualification, but it was cold comfort. And his post-fight interview was a discomforting reminder of how dangerous this sport is. He had to be consoled as he choked up because he “got dropped,” and then his team had to explain to him that he actually won the fight. His tournament ended that night.
It’s been over five years since that punch, and in that time he’s had two long layoffs. One was due to some sort of “brain injury” that nobody (apparently not even he) was completely sure about. He’s gone through management reshuffling, and career resetting. And so five years (and five fights) removed from having nearly been decapitated by Abraham, he finds himself headlining the PBC broadcast on NBC this Saturday afternoon.
And just like before the Super Six tournament, we’re not quite sure what to make of Dirrell. The competition he’s faced since his return has ranged from dreadful to corpse-like. He’s shown flashes of his former self, and he’s also gone for the kill a little more than he used to. But he’s been away from elite competition for most of his prime. We just don’t know how he’ll respond to another good fighter, which is what his opponent, Britain’s James Degale is.
Degale had an excellent campaign in 2014, winning all three of this fights by knockout. The only loss of his career came via razor-thin majority decision to George “I Hate Carl Froch” Groves in 2011. Like Dirrell, he’s a southpaw. And while he may not possess murderous punching power, he’s got decent pop, enough to give Dirrell some problems if he’s sloppy.
Once again, Andre Dirrell finds himself in the position of having to prove that he belongs at the top of the 168-pound division. The last time he was here, the division was loaded. This time, many of those names have either retired or faded away. Ward remains the class of the division, but he fights so infrequently that there’s no way of knowing how elite he still is until he starts fighting again with some consistency. Carl Froch is leaning toward retiring. Arthur Abraham is still around, but he’s nowhere near what he once was.
Dirrell (along with his brother Anthony) is still young enough to do some serious damage in a now-unproven division. If he can get a few good wins under his belt, a fight with Ward might not be far off. Whether or not it will be entertaining is for another article, but step one for him is getting back to where he was.
It’s five years later, and Dirrell is knocking on the door. Maybe this time he’ll put it all together and make good on the talent he was given. He’s lucky, most fighters don’t get another chance.
He certainly won’t get a third.
