Fighting for Flint: Dirrell Brothers Raising Awareness for Their Hometown
It's a fight week for the Dirrell brothers.
A former two-time world-title challenger, older brother Andre Dirrell will headline a Friday night show at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City when he faces Aussie import Blake Caparello.
And younger brother Anthony Dirrell, a champion for an eight-month stretch bridging 2014 and 2015, will aim for a second straight triumph when he meets Minnesota-based gatekeeper Caleb Truax.
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Wins for the two men, aged 32 and 31, respectively, would be a significant step toward getting them back in the title mix in the super middleweight division where they both reside.
But it'd be hard to blame either if his mind were somewhere else—700 miles to the northwest, to be exact.
Both Dirrell brothers were born and raised in Flint, Michigan, a city of 102,000 that's made scores of recent international headlines for reasons neither of its fighting native sons can take pride in.
A decision to change the main water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River—which ultimately subjected citizens to dangerous levels of lead from aging infrastructure pipes—has triggered a chaotic two-year stretch that's left the birthplace of General Motors on the brink of municipal collapse.
The city declared a state of emergency in December 2015, and criminal charges were filed last week against a district water supervisor and a district water engineer for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. A former laboratory and water quality supervisor who now serves as the city's utilities administrator was also charged. All three are on administrative leave.
Though Andre has relocated to Florida, and Anthony now lives about 15 miles outside Flint, both remain close enough to feel pain for family members on the front lines since the crisis began.
"I always knew how nasty the Flint River was," Andre Dirrell said. "So when they said they were going to switch it over to there I was kind of blown away. Why would they do that?
"I knew that was a downhill battle the second I heard. My niece and nephew have been affected with it. It was pretty hard, and I'm feeling real down with our system right now. Flint is at a really bad place right now and people are doing as much as they can to get it back up to speed."
Anthony, meanwhile, labels what's gone on as "a slap in the face."
"First you're mad because of the situation, because of how it is going to affect people and how can they be so blatant," he said. "And then you are sad because your family is affected.
"Any way you look, it is disappointing and disheartening. We're mad because water is an everyday use. You need water for everything—wash your dishes, wash your clothes, eat, everything—you name it, you need it. And for them to just do this and switch waters, it seems that they want Flint to fall and then they rebuild."
It's left the brothers in a jointly tenuous position: training to advance their professional careers, while trying desperately to tend to their roots.
Andre started a GoFundMe account earlier this year to raise money to purchase and distribute bottled water for the city's residents, while Anthony has made it a mission to keep the issue front and center each time he's within range of a microphone.
Not surprisingly, he views a win Friday as a chance to spread the word yet again.
"I'm glad this fight is coming up and it is going to help us raise awareness and that would definitely help and then we will start to spread out," he said.
"There's only so much we can do at the end of the day. It is up to the city to get things fixed. We can't go down there and dig pipes ourselves. So we just need to wait and see what's going on.
"We can't let it go. We need help. Word of mouth is all we can do."
As for the ring, they're hoping the tragedy will steel their collective resolve and boost the city's spirits—similar to the way the sudden success of the NFL's New Orleans Saints became a rallying point for ravaged Gulf Coast residents after Hurricane Katrina.
"Definitely," Anthony Dirrell said. "We are a name in Flint, and our voice has definitely got to be heard. It is definitely motivating for me to just push harder."
The Saints got within a game of the Super Bowl in the first season they played in the Superdome after the storm, and they then won the franchise's first world championship three years later.
Anthony Dirrell is ranked second among 168-pound contenders by the IBO and third by the WBC, while Andre is slotted fifth by both the IBF and the WBC and ninth by the IBO.
"Just knowing I have them with me on my side, I get that extra motivation," Andre Dirrell said, referring to the people of his hometown.
"I want to help change the situation in any way that I can. Yes, it is a big motivational factor. I'm pretty glad I have the opportunity. It is very motivational and I'm very pumped."
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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