Dirrell sluggish in return to ring, but wins unanimous decision

Anthony Dirrell didn’t expect to be perfect after being out of action for 17 months. But the super middleweight from Flint, Mich., was good enough Friday to stay undefeated.

Dirrell won an eight-round unanimous decision over veteran Don Mouton at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas to improve to 25-0. The fight was his first since he was injured in a motorcycle accident May 12.

While Dirrell was far from sharp, he wasn’t going to be too self-critical.

“It was good to get the rust off,” he said. “It definitely feels good to be back.

“(Mouton) was a warrior. He kept coming. But I thought I did enough to win.”

So did the judges. Adalaide Byrd scored the fight 78-74, and Al Lefkowitz and Herb Santos had it 77-75.

While his timing was off early on, Dirrell looked crisper with each passing round. He landed more combinations and had more behind his punches. He used an effective uppercut, and when Mouton (11-7-1) got careless, Dirrell made him pay, countering smartly and landing good overhand shots to the head.

“I had some things working for me, but I should’ve used my jab more, fought him on the outside and outboxed him,” Dirrell said. “I got a little careless myself at times. But I’ll learn from it and move on.”

Dirrell said the important thing now is to stay busy.

“I hope to be back in the ring in the next six, seven weeks,” he said. “I’ve had enough time off.”

In the main event, welterweight Antonio Orozco knocked down Jose Reynoso in the fifth round with a body-head combination and scored a seventh-round technical knockout.

Orozco, who was in control from the outset, used a right-left combination to the head in the seventh to send Reynoso down, and referee Kenny Bayless ended the fight at 1:13. Orozco improved 17-0, and Reynoso fell to 16-4-1.

Friday was a good night for three members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic boxing team, as Joseph Diaz Jr., Errol Spence Jr. and Dominic Breazeale looked impressive with victories on the undercard.

Diaz, fighting as a junior featherweight, scored a third-round TKO over Eric Gotay, dropping him with a left hand 2:13 into the round.

Spence used a left hook to drop Brandon Hoskins twice in the first round of their junior middleweight bout, the second of which put him down for good at 2:35.

Breazeale won his heavyweight bout, stopping Lance Gauch at 2:41 of the second round.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.