Negotiations for a fight between Adonis Stevenson and Andre Dirrell are set to begin, as Stevenson's promoter Yvon Michel confirmed that Dirrell -- working through Leonard Ellerbe -- has confirmed his interest in the fight, which would take place on August 11 on Showtime, the co-feature bout to the Tavoris Cloud vs Jean Pascal main event in Montreal.
Dirrell (20-1, 14 KO) hasn't fought since December, when he returned from a 19-month layoff to easily dispose of club fighter Darryl Cunningham. Following that, he parted ways with promoter Gary Shaw and superagent Al Haymon, choosing to go it alone. It appears as though that was short-lived, and now he has at least a loose affiliation with the Mayweather camp, or so says Michel anyway.
Stevenson (18-1, 15 KO) has been set for an IBF super middleweight title eliminator, but has had a horrible time finding an opponent for the date. The IBF has worked its way down their ratings asking fighters to sign up for the bout, and they're now down to Dirrell, who is ranked No. 11. Realistically he's actually the best opponent they've asked to date, but then that's boxing sanctioning body rankings for you.
If the fight does happen -- and I have my doubts, but how couldn't you? -- then we're talking about a fight that's just five weeks away, so this is cutting it kind of close. It would also confirm my suspicion that there's no demand for Andre Dirrell without the help of guys like Haymon and Shaw, as Dirrell would be traveling to Canada for an undercard fight against Adonis Stevenson, well after indicating that he would not have gone to Canada to face Lucian Bute, prior to Bute's loss to Carl Froch. That would be quite a big change of heart.
And all that said, if it does happen, it's a very good fight. So I'm hoping it's signed and we've got a great double-header on Showtime on August 11.