Anthony Dirrell Expects A Good Fight & Victory
9 times out of 10, when going into a championship fight, the champion is generally regarded as the betting favorite. This will not be the case on September 28, when WBC super-middleweight champion Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell (33-1-1, 24 KO’s) faces the challenge of former champion David “Red Flag” Benavidez (21-0, 18 KO’s). The meaningful title fight will serve as the co-main event for the wildly anticipated Porter versus Spence Jr prizefight.
Throughout the prefight obligations, Dirrell has been questioned to his face if he thinks that he can deal with the youth and power of Benavidez. Thus far, the Red Flag has proven to be a thunderous puncher having stopped 18 of his 21 professional opponents. This is a statistic that means very little to the Dog. In his estimation, Benavidez has been matched against guys that he was supposed to dominate in grand fashion.
“You got to understand, who has David Benavidez fought? Everybody that he fought he was supposed to knockout or beat […] he hasn’t seen nobody like me, period. He hasn’t seen anybody with the grit and the grind, with the heart that I have […] he was put in that situation for a reason. But like I say, it’ll be a good fight, David Benavidez is a warrior. I’m not taking nothing away from him, but I think I got everything, all the tools to beat him.”
VICTORY BY ANY MEANS
Aside from favorable matchmaking, Dirrell does not believe that Benavidez has been to the dark places that he has in the ring or in life. Having traveled through those gloomy valleys, and emerged unbowed, the Dog can’t see what his youthful challenger can do to throw him off his game. It seems many are tabbing a stoppage victory for the Red Flag. However, Dirrell will be shooting to score his own knockout.
Short of securing a stoppage, Anthony Dirrell is more than content and prepared to go a hard-fought twelve rounds. In the end, Dirrell is little concerned with how he obtains the victory so long as come Sunday morning he still has his WBC strap around his waist!
“Everything is in my arsenal, everything! […] if I need to sit there I can, if I want to box I can. If I want to do anything, I can. I just don’t think Benavidez is what everybody makes him out to be […] I’m going for it, I’m going for it! I mean I go for the knockout in every fight. It’s not one fight that I didn’t try to go for the knockout. But if it don’t happen, it don’t happen. I can still go twelve rounds, you know, and you know come out victorious.”
By: Bakari Simpson
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