There was some doubt that fight fans would ever see him in the ring again, but on Friday 30th December, the supremely talented American super middleweight Andre ''The Matrix'' Dirrell takes to the ring for the first time in 22 months when he faces Darryl Cunningham at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabezon, California. The last time fans saw Dirrell, he was flat on his back after being poleaxed courtesy of an illegal right-hand delivered by Arthur Abraham after he had slipped to the canvas. Subsequent neurological issues resulted in his withdrawal from the recently concluded Showtime Super Six World Boxing Classic, and have sidelined his boxing career for the best part of two years. Now he is fit again and raring to go, and squaring off against a quality opponent in Cunningham.

Although Andre Ward defeated Britain's Carl Froch to unify the WBA and WBC super middleweight titles and win the Super Six trophy last Saturday in Atlantic City to cap a tremendous tournament for the young American, arguably the best performance of the entire competition was Dirrell's masterful display against the unbeaten Abraham. It was a massive improvement on Dirrell's previous Super Six appearance in which he hit and ran all night but still looked to have done enough to defeat Froch in Nottingham, ultimately losing a split decision. 

Abraham had looked ominously good in his first Super Six bout, hunting down former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor for eleven rounds before poleaxing him with a booming straight right hand late in the 12th. Taylor was to spend three nights in hospital suffering from severe concussion following the knockout, and Abraham, a former undefeated IBF middleweight champion with a reputation for toughness and punching power, looked to be an even more fearsome prospect at super middleweight.

Needless to say, Dirrell was a big underdog when the two squared off at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit in March 2010. The feeling was that if he had ran against Froch, Dirrell would positively sprint against Abraham. 

However, fighting in his home state, Dirrell was a revelation. Some thought he would freeze or even spend all night clinching, but Dirrell did neither, and instead took the fight right to Abraham, controlling the center of the ring and punishing his opponent with fast, powerful right jabs and vicious left crosses from his southpaw stance.

In the second round a picture-perfect straight left from Dirrell floored Abraham for the first time in his career. From that point on, the fight was a sensation with the Armenian trying desperately to land the power punches needed to put him back in the fight, but Dirrell standing his ground and boxing beautifully. After 10 rounds, Dirrell was leading by 98-91 and 97-92 twice on the judges scorecards, which meant Abraham needed a knockout to win. 

As he avoided another Abraham onslaught in round 11, Dirrell slipped in a corner on some moisture and went down on his haunches. Abraham hit Dirrell with a right-hand on the jaw when he was down and after a delayed reaction, the American slumped to his side and began twitching. The referee had no option but to award the fight to Dirrell on a DQ. Abraham would later say that he thought Dirrell was simply squatting low, a la Pernell Whitaker, when he delivered the punch, and also that he believed the American subsequently made a meal of the blow and used it to gain victory.

The next day boxing journalists were unanimous on two points: A) that Abraham deserved to be disqualified and B) that Dirrell had been a revelation, and had boxed at a level no one had believed he was capable of. Standing 6'2" yet maintaining a powerful physique at 168 lbs, the ''Matrix'' suddenly looked the clear favorite to go all the way and win Super Six. 

However, it was not to be. Dirrell began complaining of headaches and double vision, and while subsequent neurological tests proved inconclusive, for a while it appeared that Abraham's illegal blow would curtail a highly promising career that had been forecast following Dirrell's bronze medal winning performance in the middleweight class at the Athens Olympics in 2004, where he had only lost to the eventually gold medalist Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan, the current WBA middleweight champion. 

Now 27 year old Dirrell (19-1, 13 KOs) has been given the all clear to resume boxing, and does so against a dangerous opponent in Darryl Cunningham on December 30th. 

37 year old Cunningham (24-2, 10 KOs) was scheduled to fight a comebacking Kelly Pavlik in August for what would have been the biggest bout of his career. However, the troubled former world middleweight champion was to pull out of the bout and a subsequent IBF super middleweight title shot against Lucian Bute, raising doubts about his future as a top level fighter.

A late starter as a pro at aged 26, Cunningham has been in the punch for pay ranks for nine years, losing just twice - a four round decision to Canada's Anthony Russell his fourth pro fight and and an eight round decision to the once promising Kevin Engel in 2007.

Cunningham's record looks impressive, but a closer inspection reveals a lot of victories against fighters with either losing records or who were on the skids at the time of facing him. 

His standout win is a third-round knockout over former three-time world challenger Antwun Echols, a fighter who gave Bernard Hopkins two great fights for the IBF middleweight title, but the reality is that Echols was a shopworn 39 years old when they fought in July 2010, had lost six of his previous seven bouts and had posted a record of 1-8-3 since 2004.

Cunningham possesses an awkward and dangerous style that sees him suddenly launch into big punching attacks almost unexpectedly, and cannot be taken too lightly by Dirrell, especially considering his long hiatus from the ring. Despite only 10 career KOs, Cunningham does hit hard and his victory over Echols was via a clean knockout. He is undefeated in four years and 17 bouts, and will no doubt view his shot at Dirrell as a way of gate crashing the world rankings relatively late in his career.

Ironically, it is Dirrell´s unbeaten younger brother Anthony who might just beat Andre to a world title tilt. 27-year-old Anthony is a talented fighter in his own right, the WBC's no.1 contender and mandatory challenger to Andre Ward. 

Whether or not Anthony Dirrell has the skills needed to defeat the outstanding Ward remains to be seen, but without doubt a fit and healthy Andre Dirrell is one of the very few fighters cable of beating the newly crowned Super Six champion and any other super middleweight boxing today for that matter.

Expect some tricky moments in the early rounds as Cunningham looks to hit a home run. Once Dirrell gets that big right jab pumping, he will slip into his rhythm, and the fight will be as good as won. 

Dirrell by unanimous decision.

Big Fight Odds: Andre Dirrell 1/25, Darryl Cunningham 10/1 bet365