Two of America’s best boxers stepped into the ring at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon, California on Dec. 30 after lengthy absences. Former undisputed world middleweight champion Jermain Taylor had been on the sidelines for 26 months after being knocked out twice in a row in the dying seconds of Super Six Classic bouts against Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham while Andre Dirrell was out for 21 months after also getting injured in a Super Six tournament bout against Abraham.
Taylor, with a record of 29-4-1, with 18 KOs, suffered his knockouts as a super middleweight and decided to come back down to 160 lbs. to the middleweight division. He showed good speed in his comeback bout against Jessie Nicklow (23-3-3, 8 KOs), but not a lot of power. It didn’t really look like he’s been out of the ring for over two years, but Nicklow also lacked power and was basically a hand-picked opponent.
The 33-year-old Taylor stopped Nicklow in the eighth round after catching him with a solid right hand that appeared to stagger his opponent slightly. But before any other damage could be inflicted, referee Ray Corona jumped in and stopped the fight at the 36 second mark of the round much to the chagrin of Nicklow and the crowd. The complained that it was a quick stoppage and since it was the first time Nicklow was in trouble during the bout it probably was. However, Taylor was well ahead on the scorecards and would have needed to suffer another late-round knockout to blow the fight.
Dirrell upped his record to 20-1, with 14 KOs when he beat fellow southpaw Daryl Cunningham by a second round TKO in their super middleweight bout. It was an odd fight and it appeared obvious that Cunningham’s corner was looking for a way out since they threw in the towel at the 2:05 mark of the round and referee Jack Reiss called the fight off.
Cunningham was dropped by a left cross in the round and after making it to his feet was decked again, this time by a right hook. His corner threw a towel into the ring, but the referee allowed the fight to continue because it was thrown by an assistant, not the chief second. When the chief second threw the towel in about 20 seconds later, Reiss halted the bout. With the loss, Cunningham’s record dropped to 24-3 with 10 KOs.
It was hard to grade the 28-year-old Dirrell since it was an odd, short fight against an aging opponent. However, his speed was there and he landed at will with his right jab and Left hands to the body. Before the knockdowns, Dirrell hurt Cunningham with a solid jab and then hit him lightly during the break. It looked like Cunningham was trying to make out that he was injured and from then on it was obvious he didn’t want to fight anymore.
Taylor, an Olympic bronze medalist in 2000, and Dirrell both looked impressive, but nobody knows how they’re going to be able to handle top-name fighters until they take a solid shot to the head, which is something Nicklow and Cunningham weren’t able to do.
