Former WBC Super middleweight champion of the world Anthony Dirrell (27-1-1, 22KOs) will look to get back on the championship trail this Sunday. Dirrell will face former two-time division world title challenger Marco Antonio Rubio (59-7-1, 51KOs). The bout will be a part of another edition of Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Championship series (PBC). CBS will televise. Site will be the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
When fans last saw Dirrell in action it was this past April where he lost his world title to Badou Jack in Chicago, Illinois. It was a closely contested contest that saw Jack able to impose his will more in route to the victory. One of the judges had it even but the two judges that had Jack winning seemed more on point with their scores. Dirrell not only lost his world title but along with it his unbeaten record.
The official odds have Dirrell heavily favored to defeat Rubio. This is for good reasoning as Dirrell will enter the fight with some major advantages. One is that Rubio has been campaigning at 160 for a number of years where Dirrell has been at 168 his entire career. The speed factor will be heavily in favor of Dirrell. Rubio has shown decent power at 160 but it has not surfaced as he has stepped up in class. Dirrell also is steadily moving target so that won’t help matters at all for Rubio.
Anthony Dirrell has really beaten the odds thus far in his career. The fact that he is even fighting is truly remarkable. He underwent months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma back in 2007. He battled back through this and 7 years later became a world champion. His brother Andre is thought of by many to be the better of the two but still has not won a world title. Dirrell now sets his sights on positioning himself to becoming a two-time world champion. It would be no surprise at all to see him achieve this with the heart and determination he has shown thus far in his career.
