First fight of two on Showtime would get Saturday fight night kicked off. This fight featuring IBF Super Middleweight champion Andre Dirrell (26-3, 16 KO) would have his second go at challenger Jose Uzcategui (27-2, 23 KO).
In the previous fight Dirrell won by way of DQ in the 8th round. At this point judges, including myself saw Uzcategui winning the fight before the disqualification.
This time we had another crazy event before the fight. Showtime would report that there was some weird coloring in Uzcateguis pee from drug test. The news leads to uncertainty whether the fight would even happen. After a while it was reported that it was just blood. No sign of any kind of PED. Fight would go on.
In the first few rounds Uzcategui would develop the straight right to Dirrell. This ended up being the go to punch for him throughout the entire fight. Straight right would propel him to a very fast start which set up the tempo of the fight.
Into the third it was more of the same. In the last seconds of the round Dirrell was hurt with a body shot that he’d go down on. This was not counted as a knockdown as the bell sounded before he hit the ground, but he was seriously hurt.
Jab sighting! Uzcategui started to use the jab to now set up his combinations/straight right hand. It made him more effective.
Dirrell had his only round win of the fight in the fifth round when Uzcategui took the round off. My scorecard still found Uzcategui up 49-46.
Rounds six through eight saw Uzcategui landing clean blows while moving well. Sticking his jab while moving. Occasionally being hit by a shot, but moving so much that Dirrell could only get one punch of at a time. Dictated the pace as he did throughout the fight. He came out in the eighth landing early left hooks and would keep going for that shot. These rounds showed clear domination.
Unsuccessful at best Dirrell walked to his corner after the eighth with his head down. While there he was told they’d stop the fight to which he kept standing and just faced the opposite direction. Understandable that he’d be upset with the stoppage, but he was being embarrassed out there. The ref would stop the fight right after the bell rings for the ninth.
Official result:
Uzcategui TKO 0:02 into 9th round!!!