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Anthony Dirrell believes there’s too much left to accomplish to begin living in the past, never mind try to change anything about it.
With that, it didn’t take very long for the former two-time WBC super middleweight titlist to come to grips with the result of his last fight. Dirrell relinquished his piece of the 168-pound crown in a 9th round stoppage loss to David Benavidez in their Sept. 2019 clash at Staples Center in Los Angeles. He doesn’t have to agree with the outcome to understand that everything happens for a reason.
“I honestly thought I was winning the fight until I got caught,” Dirrell insisted during a recent media conference call to discuss his next fight, a 12-round fight with Kyrone Davis this weekend. “He knows it, but it’s all water under the bridge. I’m not even focused on it. I’m just focused on the man in front of me. In boxing you can’t afford to overlook nobody.
“The fight happened how it’s supposed to happen. I don’t question how anything happens. It’s boxing. You get cut, you get dropped, these things happen. They know it was a competitive fight until then. I was boxing, I was able to do what I wanted in there.”
Enduring the 17-month delay that came with his title fight loss isn’t the most ideal situation but Dirrell (33-2-1, 24KOs) will certainly make the most of it. What the Flint, Michigan native won’t do is dwell on what would’ve happened had the fight continued, or if this fight with Davis (15-2, 6KOs) would’ve taken place on Jan. 30 as planned instead of this Saturday, when it will air live on Fox from Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles.
“I was able to do more to do what we needed in order to get ready,” Dirrell says of the delay. “The weight came off easy. I’m literally ready to fight right now.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox