Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com reports that super middleweight Andre Dirrell is once again lining up his comeback date, and this time says he'll fight in late October or early November on ESPN.
Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO) has been out of action since his March 2010 disqualification win against Arthur Abraham in stage two of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. With a stage three fight coming up against friend Andre Ward, Dirrell suddenly pulled out of the tournament citing injuries suffered from the Abraham fight, when Abraham struck a slipped Dirrell with an illegal left hook.
Let's not lie about this: There have been doubters of the extent of Dirrell's injuries since the knockout itself, and nothing improved when Dirrell pulled out of the Ward fight, which never truly seemed to be on in the first place, as venues and money were being argued about. And there were a lot of whispers that the two weren't going to fight each other long before it was time for that fight. And this segment on Showtime's Fight Camp 360 didn't help either:
Those doubters predicted that Dirrell would return to the ring once the Super Six was over. Well, the Super Six finishes up on October 29. Dirrell had previously been set to return on August 5, then August 19, then September, and all of those dates fell through. His previous comeback opponent was going to be Sebastian Demers.
I think the layoff will always be questioned, but at the end of it all, I just hope he's healthy, cleared to fight, and gets back in the ring if that's what he wants to do. He and his team have mentioned looking for a shot at Lucian Bute, but Dirrell said earlier this year he doesn't want to go to Canada to fight, so that probably counts that out since Dirrell isn't a draw anywhere.