By Rick Reeno
StubHub Center, Carson, California - In a rematch of last December's twelve round draw, Anthony Dirrell (27-0-1, 22KOs) became a division player by capturing the WBC super middleweight championship with a twelve round unanimous decision over Sakio Bika (32-6-3, 21KOs). The scores were 114-113, 116-111 and 117-110.
Dirrell went right at Bika at the opening bell and things got dirty very quickly with holding, wrestling and shoving between both fighters. They were wrestling around, throwing wild punches and making the rounds hard to score.
Dirrell was landing the cleaner punches but the fight itself was far from pretty and the action only happened in spurts. Bika was stunned in the closing seconds of the fifth. The first point was taken in the eight, when Bika landed a low blow. After the penalty, an angry Bika started blasting away at Dirrell and the two of them were trading big punches.
Dirrell was in complete controll of the championship rounds, with a tired and facially bruised up Bika who lacked any pop in his punches to turn the tide.
