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July 16, 2013 / BY UBO PRESS OFFICER

The fight, which is part of the big Keith Thurman vs. Diego Chaves, Andre Berto vs. Jesus Soto Karrass bill, will be promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Jesse James Leija and Mike Battah, and will be televised live by Showtime Extreme.
 

After seventeen months of inactivity due to injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, Dirrell returned to the ring in May of this year with a non-title eight round unanimous decision over journeyman Don Mouton. Now the 28-year-old UBO Champion is ready for stiffer competition:
 

"We wanted somebody that was pretty good and had a good name, so that's why we chose him," Dirrell told Eric Woodyard of The Flint Journal. "We had one or two other guys, but we chose Anthony Hanshaw because of his name and now it's time to go to work."
 

Hanshaw brings a lot of experience to the table, having challenged for two versions of the world title. His three losses came at the hands of legendary UBO Inter-Continental Cruiserweight Champion Roy Jones Jr., contender Farah Ennis and Dirrell’s brother Andre, himself a world class Super Middleweight.

Dirrell claims he has not asked his brother for advice on how to defeat Hanshaw, but he will surely be listening to what new trainer, and Emmanuel Steward protégé, Javan “Sugar” Hill of the famed Kronk Gym in Detroit has to say while they prepare for the fight.
 

Dirrell and Hill has worked together before when Dirrell was an amateur, and he felt Hill would be the right man to assist his grandfather Leon Lawson with his training. Hill, who also trains newly-crowned world Light Heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, among others, is confident that Hanshaw will be defeated by knockout, saying:
 

"He's a lot more balanced which has allowed him to punch a lot harder now. That's one of the key things with him being more balanced so he can punch harder now. We're just getting him back to the hurting-people-mode like he was as an amateur."
 

Dirrell won the UBO Inter-Continental Super Middleweight title in July 2011 with a fifth round knockout of former Olympian Dante Craig. He scored two more stoppage victories that year before the motorcycle accident put him on the sidelines until the comeback fight against Mouton this past May.
 

Now he is ready to reestablish himself as one of the best in the world!