Olympic bronze medallist Andre Dirrell, booed in a safety-first win over Curtis Stevens 16 months ago, has shown star quality in subsequent bouts and was particularly impressive when he demolished Anthony Hanshaw in five rounds.

The tall, fast and athletic 168-pounder is featured in Showtime’s chief supporting bout on Saturday when he meets Victor Oganov, the muscular, Aussie-based Russian, in a scheduled 10-rounder.

There seems to be a huge difference in class in this fight. Oganov, the older, shorter man, is heavy handed and can be dangerous when someone is standing right in front of him. His limitations were severely exposed, though, when the much more experienced Colombian Fulgencio Zuniga outclassed him nine rounds on ShoBox 13 months ago.

Oganov has since won two fights by KO back home in Australia. He had a very respectable result in his last fight when he flattened Kariz Kariuki, a Sydney-based Kenyan, in the second round. Kariuki, although by no means a world-class fighter, had stopped seven opponents in a row, so Oganov did well to blow him out ias quickly as he did.

Oganov is a slow, plodding fighter, however, and Dirrell is unlikely to oblige him by staying in one place. I can see the speedy southpaw using his legs, hitting and getting away in almost the same motion, switching stances and bedevilling and breaking down the Russian fighter.

Oganov gamely took a licking for round after round against Zuniga and I expect something along the same lines on Saturday, with the accumulation of punches from Dirrell catching up with Oganov somewhere between the sixth and ninth rounds.