Dirrell looked as if he'd never been away with an easy win over Cunningham

Although neither had fought for around two years Andre Dirrell and Jermain Taylor looked at very different stages of their comebacks last night at the Marongo Casino in Cabazon, California, despite both men scoring relatively comfortable victories.

Super-middleweight Dirrell (20-1, 14KO’s), with perhaps the tougher test on paper, took no time at all stopping fellow Michigan fighter Darryl Cunningham (24-3, 10KO’s), dropping the 37 year-old twice en route to a second round TKO.

Looking sharp and lean, Dirrell couldn’t miss with his southpaw left and peppered Cunningham throughout. With absolutely nothing coming back from Cunningham it was all a bit easy for Dirrell, who looked as if he’d never been away.

Catching Cunningham with a good jab early on, Dirrell took little time bringing his left hand into play and Cunningham had no answer. He seemingly had no fight either, and looked as if he wanted out. Two solid left hands hurt him in the second round yet Cunningham complained to the referee before wandering over to his corner aimlessly. It was not the body language of a man who wanted to continue, and if what happened next is anything to go by you can understand why.

The very first punch Dirrell threw as the action resumed, a lead left hand, dropped Cunningham on the seat of his pants. He made it to his feet but yet again went over to his corner and did anything he could to avoid a fight. The towel even came in at one point but referee Jack Reiss seemed confused and unsure what to do, so once again he sent Cunningham off into battle.

It was a pointless task as once again Dirrell landed hard and an ugly right hook in close sent Cunningham to the canvas for the second time. Once again he beat the count but sensing the distress he was in, his corner threw in the towel and this time it was accepted. The fight was waved off with less than two completed rounds of the scheduled ten.

Dirrell can be a lot more confident now that he is ready to test himself in the big leagues once again and can start to put the traumatic Abraham fight behind him and at just 28 move on to big things, but in truth this win told us little about his ability to cope at that kind of level again.

Taylor seemed unwilling to take risks in his win over Nicklow

In the co-headline bout Arkansas’ former middleweight champ Jermain Taylor (29-4-1, 18KO’s) took a slightly different route to Dirrell, slowly easing into his ring return with a comfortable, if not great eighth-round TKO of Baltimore’s Jessie Nicklow (22-3-3, 8KO’s).

Back at middleweight after his ultimately disastrous foray into the 168lb super-middleweight division, Taylor seemed surprisingly unwilling to let his hands go and instead settled on boxing Nicklow, using his jab to control the fight, but never really turned up the heat and could even be accused of being a little gun-shy.

Taylor was so in control with his jab, keeping the square-footed, ponderous Nicklow off balance and unable to land, that it seemed as if he was holding back and not letting power shots go, power shots he knew would land. His corner even asked him if he had hurt his right hand at one point, which Taylor immediately denied, so it was something of a mystery why Taylor refused to go through the gears.

Perhaps Taylor wanted rounds, but even at the point of the stoppage never really pushed it, instead landing one good right hand that rocked Nicklow slightly. The referee dived in before anyone could do a thing and the reaction of Nicklow told us everything. He screamed with derision at the decision and protested loudly. It was an early stoppage maybe, but in truth was so one-sided came almost as a relief.

Where 33-year-old Taylor goes from here is anyone’s guess, but it’s quite obvious he will need to be eased gently back into the game and fight opponents of a much higher caliber than Nicklow before he even considers the World title shot at middleweight that he ultimately craves.

1. Taylor and Dirrell both have a point to prove this Friday