Photo by Amanda Kwok
Friday, December 19, 2014, Andre Dirrell (24-1, 16 KOs) took on Derek Edwards (27-4-1, 14 KOs) in a 12-round Super Middleweight bout live from the Colisee de Quebec, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Earlier this year, Edwards scored a big upset against Badou Jack, knocking out the undefeated TMT fighter in one round.
Unfortunately for spectators, that version of Edwards took 12 rounds to show up and by that time it was too late to salvage the bout.
Instead, Edwards was content with eating 1,000 jabs and straight lefts from Dirrell, while only landing only one jab of his own the entire fight (Edwards landed 1 of 29 jabs according to CompuBox).
In fact, the most action that we saw from Edwards actually came from his trainer, Charlie “Dew Drop” Young, who went on a vulgar tirade between each round.
In Round 8, Dirrell turned up his offensive output and pummeled Edwards with lead lefts, uppercuts and hooks. Somehow, Edwards was able to survive the round, only to be verbally beaten to a pulp by his corner after the round.
In Round 12, Edwards finally showed up, surprisingly catching Dirrell with a left hook that wobbled the Flint, Michigan native. Dirrell, who left himself open by squaring up as he tried to land his own short hook, played up the effects of the punch a bit, but it undoubtedly landed flush.
Unfortunately, it was way too little and too late for Edwards who took 12 rounds to remember he was in a fight. In the post-fight interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray, Dirrell spoke about his decision to remain in the southpaw stance throughout the fight.
“I want to perfect my craft. I haven’t given up on the right,” said Dirrell who was lead by trainer Chrid Byrd.
Judges’ scores were 119-109, 120-108 and 119-107 all in favor of Dirrell who now looks for bigger and better challengers in the new year. With the victory, Dirrell is now the IBF’s No. 2 challenger in line to face Carl Froch.
When asked about a potential Froch rematch, Dirrell told Gray that he honestly believes Froch is scared to fight him.
Perhaps a fight between No. 1 contender James DeGale and Dirrell could determine who gets to fight Froch next, although Carl seems to be headed towards a larger scale finale to his career–perhaps against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in Las Vegas, NV.
