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TALENTED, UNDEFEATED ANTHONY
DIRRELL
READY, CONFIDENT FOR LATEST
CHALLENGE --
WBC SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION
SAKIO BIKA ON SATURDAY, DEC. 7,
LIVE ON
SHOWTIME®
Zab Judah and
Paulie Malignaggi Battle For
Brooklyn
Bragging Rights in Main Event of Quadrupleheader
At Barclays
Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Tickets on Sale Now
NEW YORK (Nov. 20, 2013) - Unbeaten Anthony "The Dog"
Dirrell, who is no stranger to overcoming adversity, finally gets his crack
at a world title when he challenges defending champion Sakio Bika for the
WBC Super Middleweight Championship on Saturday, Dec. 7, live on
SHOWTIME (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) from Barclays Center in
Brooklyn, N.Y.
The
quadrupleheader, headlined by an all-Brooklyn bout between former world
champions Zab "Super'' Judah and
Paulie "The Magic Man" Malignaggi, is the first of back-to-back
blockbuster events promoted by Golden Boy Promotions live on SHOWTIME. On
Saturday, Dec. 14, in another four-fight telecast on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP
BOXING®,
rising superstar Adrien Broner will defend his WBA Welterweight
Championship against dangerous, hard-hitting Marcos Maidana in the main
event.
For Dirrell (26-0, 22 KO's), of Flint, Mich., the
world title fight caps a remarkable journey for the 29-year-old, whose
eight-year-professional career has twice been seriously jeopardized; the first
time in December 2006 when he was diagnosed with cancer and sidelined for 20
months. At the time of his diagnosis with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Dirrell was
12-0 and had been boxing professionally for only two years.
After winning his battle with cancer, he rose to No.
1 in the WBC and No. 2 in the WBA in 2011. He had become an established star and
was readying himself for a shot at a world title before getting into a
motorcycle accident in May 2012 that would keep him out of the ring for 17
months.
Dirrell will be fighting for the third time since the
accident when he faces Bika (32-5-2, 21 KO's), who is making the first defense
of the 168-pound crown he captured with a majority 12-round decision over
Marco Antonio Periban last June 22 on SHOWTIME. The current WBC
No.8-ranked contender, Dirrell triumphed by third-round TKO over Anthony
Hanshaw in his most recent outing last July 27.
Here's what the athletic, switch-hitting Dirrell had
to say about his career, personal setbacks and upcoming bout against
Bika:
(Did you think your career might be over after the
motorcycle mishap?)
"If anything, it made me more focused. But I wasn't
even thinking boxing. I was thinking survival and getting back on my feet. I was
thinking what I could do so that I could play with my son again. Boxing was the
last thing on my mind.''
(Thoughts going into the Dec. 7 world title fight
that will open the SHOWTIME telecast)
"The key for me is to stick to our game plan and to
go in and dominate the guy. I'm really going to try and take him out. I don't
want to leave it in the judges' hands.
"I definitely think he's underestimating me, probably
because I haven't had a lot of rounds (Anthony has only gone eight rounds one
time, and all of his knockouts have come in five rounds or less). But I'm
prepared mentally and physically and come Dec. 7 the world will realize that I'm
a champion and not just a contender.''
(Your road to a world title fight has been
anything but easy. What does it mean to finally be fighting for a world
title?)
"It's a great thing, my dream coming true, a dream
I've had since I was a little kid. But it can't be complete until I win. I'm
finally at the door and I'm going to bust it down. All the hard work I've put
in, actually there's no need to bust it down. I'm just going to walk right in
and get my championship."
(What do you think of the vastly more-experienced
Bika, who has fought the likes of Joe Calzaghe, Lucian Bute and Andre Ward?)
"He's a good fighter, a champion. You can't take
anything away from that. But at the end of day I feel I have better skills and
boxing ability. All I have to say is he'd better be on his 'A'
game.''
(What did you think of the Bika-Periban
fight?)
"It was a close fight, one that could have gone
either way. Neither guy was impressive. I'm a different kind of fighter than
Periban so I expect Bika to be training better and harder for me.''
(With a victory, do you think you'll finally get
your due and escape your brother Andre's shadow?)
"People keep talking about me being in Andre's
shadow, but I don't mind. His casts a big shadow. In my book, he's a world
champion. He beat Carl Froch and he beat Arthur Abraham. If I have to stay in
his shadow the next 10 years, I don't mind. I have to do what I have to do to
win this championship. I'm my own person.''
(How's training?)
"I've been training at the ABC Gym in Boca Raton,
Fla. I've done a lot of sparring and running. Camp has been wonderful, hard and
very intense.
"I'm ready, but I'll be even more ready on fight
night. I can't wait for Dec. 7.''
ABOUT "JUDAH VS. MALIGNAGGI":
Judah vs. Malignaggi is a 12-round
welterweight fight taking place on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013 at Barclays Center in
Brooklyn, New York. The event is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in
association with Super Judah Promotions and sponsored by Corona, AT&T,
Casamigos Tequila and Grudge Match. In the co-featured bout, Devon Alexander
puts his IBF welterweight title on the line in a 12-round bout against Shawn
Porter, Erislandy Lara defends his interim WBA Super Welterweight title in a
12-round fight against Austin Trout and Sakio Bika defends his WBC Super
Middleweight title against Anthony Dirrell in a 12-round bout. The SHOWTIME
telecast begins at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT immediately following ALL ACCESS:
Broner vs. Maidana which begins at 7:30 p.m. ET/ 4:30 p.m. PT. The telecast will
be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP).
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