By Mike Coppinger
On the heels of Anthony Dirrell’s dominant victory last Friday on ESPN 2 and with older brother Andre Dirrell’s return imminent, BoxingScene.com caught up with Leon Lawson Jr., uncle and co-trainer of the fighting brothers.
Andre, 27, has been on the mend for more than 16 months with a head injury, suffered in his win over Arthur Abraham in the Super Six World Boxing Classic. Dirrell was leading wide on points when he slipped to the canvas and Abraham proceeded to take a shot a pot shot at him, disqualified in the process and allegedly causing the injury.
Dirrell pulled out of a schedule bout with Andre Ward and out of the Super Six altogether. Now, though, he looks to return to the ring, slated to fight Canadian Sebastien Demers (to take place in Sept. according to Lawson Jr.) with his eyes on bigger fights in the fall.
“I know he wants to fight [Lucian] Bute, I heard him speaking on that,” Lawson Jr. told BoxingScene.com. “[Mikkel] Kessler would be great to fight and then eventually, of course [Andre] Ward.
“Andre is one of the best super middleweights out there, period,” said Lawson Jr. “We know that, so now he just needs to prove it. He’s beaten two undefeated champions already, Carl Froch, even though they took that fight from him and he beat up Abraham. He showed he belongs and it’s just a matter of time before he’s on top.”
Although Andre is by far the more accomplished and well-known of the brothers, Anthony is also looking to be a player in the same weight class, 168, a talented fight in his own right. Anthony, 26, overcame a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, missing substantial time from the ring.
He needed just two rounds to overcome Kevin Engel last week in the co-feature on Friday Night Fights and like his brother, there are big plans for him in boxing.
“He’s definitely stepping up the competition, as you see Anthony is ready to go,” Lawson Jr. proclaimed. “We’re definitely looking to step up the competition with him, we just wanted to look at him and make sure he was back 100 percent, which he showed.
“[Andre] and Anthony, both of the Dirrell brothers, they’re going to reign on top of the super middleweight division just like the Klitschko brothers.”
Mike Coppinger is a regular boxing freelancer for USA TODAY and Ring Magazine. He’s a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, the Ring Ratings Advisory Panel and the Yahoo! Sports Boxing Panel. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger.
