Dirrell dethrones Bika in scrappy rematch

 
IT may have taken a combined twenty four rounds to separate them, but there was no doubting who was the victor in the rematch.

 
Unbeaten Anthony Dirrell (27-0, 22 KOs) became the second cancer surviver in as many weeks to win a world title, following fellow American Danny Jacobs who knocked out Australia’s Jarrod Fletcher in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

 
Dirrell, 29, outworked Bika, 35, in all aspects of the fight and was crowned the winner by unanimous decision by tallies of 117-110, 116-111 and a surprising 114-113 scorecard.

 
The fight was a scrappy affair – despite many initially predicting it was a can’t-miss for fight of the night honours – most notably Brian Kenny of the Showtime Sports commentary team.

 
Bika was able to temporarily stun Dirrell with singular looping right hands, but it was all Dirrell in the exchanges. Despite being pinned down and felled multiple times, Dirrell landed barrages of punches at a time, which without doubt gave him the edge on the judges cards.

 
“Bika’s a hell of a fighter,” Dirrell said post-fight.

 
“Everything I said at the press conference was just promoting the fight. I didn’t mean it.”

 
While he may have left the StubHub Center without his prized WBC super middleweight title, Bika (32-6-3, 21 KOs) left with a handy $700,000 USD pay cheque, courtesy of Bika being handled by notorious boxing advisor Al Haymon. Dirrell made $500,000 USD for his maiden world title win.

 
“This journey has been amazing with all of my friends and family helping me out I can’t even fathom it right now,” Dirrell said.

 
“I was never close to giving up. I knew I could box this guy and the first fight I got out of my game plan when I knocked him down but I stuck to it. I did the job, I got it done and I’m the WBC champion of the world.”

 
The result ends an unlucky run for Australian boxing in the US, with Daniel Geale, Blake Caparello, Jarrod Fletcher and now Sakio Bika all losing their world title fights. Bika was the only Australian not to lose by knockout, but arguably had the easiest opponent of the four Australians in the unbeaten but unproven Dirrell.

 
“I fought very hard. He was the better fighter tonight,” said Bika in his brief interview post-fight. “I’m going to go back to the gym and come back stronger. This happens.”

 
There was a lot on the line for Bika going into the Dirrell rematch, most notably a handful of lucrative fights against British pair in WBA/IBF titlist Carl Froch or George Groves. Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn mentioned a possible unification fight against Bika in Vegas – providing Bika was successful – while Groves is fighting an official WBC title eliminator to become the mandatory challenger.

 
It remains unclear as to where Bika goes from here. He remains as one of the toughest assignments at super middleweight, having been a perennial contender before his eventual WBC title win over Marco Periban last year.