Shaw: “Maybe we [Dirrell] should have traded from round one” [with Froch]
October 19th, 2009
By William Mackay: In an article at the BBC, previously undefeated super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell’s manager Gary Shaw admitted after the fight that Dirrell should have fought differently against WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch last Saturday night, commenting “we kept telling him [Dirrell] to box, but after watching him in rounds 10, 11 and 12, trading with Froch, maybe we should have traded from round one.”
It was only until the 10th round, following a penalization due to constant holding, that Dirrell finally started throwing punches. What he, and many boxing fans discovered was, that Dirrell was more than a match with Froch when fighting him. Dirrell didn’t realize until it was far too late that Froch wasn’t as good as he and his manager Shaw thought he was.
Dirrell paid the price by giving Froch too much respect and not doing the things that got him to this point in the Super Six tournament. In his past fights, Dirrell has always gone after his opponents and blasted them apart with speedy combinations. Dirrell didn’t do that with Froch, and failed to even try until the 10th round. Instead, Dirrell gave the 32-year-old Froch far too much respect, perhaps believing that he was the steely chinned fighter that many people had said he was.
What Dirrell proved, once he started throwing his punches, was that Froch was human after all and capable of being hurt by punches. Dirrell also proved that he could fight Froch and still make him miss relatively easy while standing in front of him. Dirrell didn’t need to move in order to make Froch miss, he showed.
“His [Dirrell] movement round the ring may not be pleasing to Carl because he wants someone to stand dead in front of him so he can knock their lights out,” Shaw said. But what Shaw fails to mention is that it’s nearly impossible to beat a champion like Froch in his own backyard by adopting a defensive style of fighting. The judges weren’t going to give a way Froch’s WBC title just because he missed all night long and was out-landed in the fight by a significant margin.
They were only going to let Dirrell get the title if he could stand his ground and prove that he was better at Froch at fighting him. Maybe if this was a more popular fighter like Floyd Mayweather Jr. the judges would give Dirrell the nod in a fight against Froch, but Dirrell’s not all that popular at this time in his career and still needs to grit it out when facing champion-level opposition.
The loss, as many people say, might be a good thing for Dirrell because he’ll know what he did wrong against Froch and can plan to fight differently in the future. If Dirrell fails to make changes in his style of fighting, then he deserves to lose. But one thing is sure, he won’t be able to win in the Super Six tournament by fighting defensively against fighters like Arthur Abraham and Andre Ward.
Dirrell has a lot to feel good about his performance against Froch despite losing the fight. Dirrell showed incredible hand speed, great foot movement and an uncanny ability to make punches miss. He proved that he can go 12 rounds without tiring out and showed a good chin as well.
Tags: 26 Responses to “Shaw: “Maybe we [Dirrell] should have traded from round one” [with Froch]”
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Gary Shaw is totally right here. Only when Dirrell knew he wouldn’t get the decision and started trying to end it, he started to win convincingly. He didn’t end it but if he had been hitting Froch with shots like that all night, it really could have been a different story. That was Dirrell’s first real test and he will be more confident because of it, he knows now he can trade with the best fighters out there. Hopefully he becomes a more disciplined and mature fighter throughout the Super
Six.
You yanks just can’t handle us Brits… End of!
And still champion…
Carl froch!
The face on dirrell what a picture!
Indeedy, she will ruin Froch, she aint nothing but a gold digga, coz I aint ever seen her with a broke brother!
for the love of god… the fight is over, get over it, froch won. can we please talk about upcoming fights or maybe positives about the fight rather then an outcome that can’t and won’t be changed.
I put a lot of money on Dirrell, but he should have done more. I think he won, but to beat the champion in his own backyard it takes more than what Dirrell did. He gave up a lot of early rounds by not punching, even though he made Froch miss, Froch was busier a couple of those earlier rounds. Dirrell should have got in, throw a 4 to 5 punch combo then get out. He could have down that all day to Froch, and possibly got him out of there. He rocked him in the last couple of rounds. Dirrell grew up a lot in this fight…I will put my money on him again against Abraham since he will be a huge underdog after what the King did to Jermain in the 12th round. Speed is Dirrells biggest advantage!!
DIRELL IS CRAP ACCORDING TO THE BRITS.FOR ME IF THAT IS SO IT ONLY SHOWS HOW FOURTH-RATE A BOXER FROCH IS.I HAVE NEVER WITNESSED A MORE INEPT WORLD CHAMPION.HE ´WOULD NEVER HAVE GOT THAT DECISION OUTSIDE OF ENGLAND,NOT EVEN IN SCOTLAND OR WALES.THAT IS ONE OF THE WORSE DECISION IHAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 50 YEARS OF WATCHING BOXING.AGRESSION IS ONE THING,BUT YOU MUST HIT THE OTHER GUY TO WIN THE FIGHT.FROC COULD´NT AND DID´NT HIT DIRELL MORE THAN 5 TIMES IN THE WHOLE FIGHT.
All Dirrell needed to do was continue to do what he did from rounds 2 to 5, he was makin Froch miss and countering with speed, and getting the jab to land.
After round 5 that changed to running and holding, i dont know why cuz he was controlling no problem. He went too nagative as everybody is stating and i dont really know why. Did Froch hurt him more than we know at some early point?
Jack P – dude, fair enough… but Froch has to sleep at night knowing that the belt should be with Dirrell, I hope he cannot sleep!
Dirrell was robbed dude, I know I sound obsessed, but I was very very disapointed Sunday morning, not only lost a lot of Money that I should have won, As I put for Dirrell to win on points!
Shame really…
Hey Slapfest, you dont get points for making people miss, boxing is a contact sport. Vitali and Floyd punch people when they are running from them, just avoiding being hit is not enough.
The majority of judges score FOR the aggressor, Dirrell and his team know this yet they fought as defensively as possible then act surprised they didnt get the decision against a hometown champ?
Froch, ask your lady friend what she did at the Hoggs Head in Leicester back in 2007, August ish… ash her about the guy who took her laced ahem…
i thought Dirrel would slip punches counter and beat Froch easily. I was Wrong . Its onr thing to stick and move but Dirrell RAN away . You cat give rounds to a fighter where the opponent has to physically run after him. Dirrell has jab Judah syndrom , increadably fast but releis on speed TOO much . Speed is the Most OVERRATED aspect in boxing . It only can get you so far
FROCH IS A TRAMP!
what do you mean Dirrell did not do enough to win???? he out punched, avoided being hit (that’s what the art is aboot, no?) dude, Dirrell beat Froch, Froch LOST, – Jon Thaxton who was ringside also said that Froch was behing by about 2 or 3 rounds – 1st Match and the Integrity of the sport hhhhhmmmmm – and that fat wierdo steve bunce was yapping away, idiot, I thought he was an expert, FROCH LOST and he makes out that he won is style or summit! W4NKERS!
Froch lost still, and all the Kings horse’s and their eefing dogs know it!
I think overall that fight will only help Dirrell’s confidence, he went in there looking to survive, it just took him too long to realize he’s better than Froch. He definitely proved he belongs in the tournament. He’s got a tough road ahead with Abraham and Ward though
NO WAY IN HELL DIRRELL BEAT FROCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HOW HARD IS THAT TO UNDERSTAND JASON? YOU HAVE TO BEAT A CHAMP, NOT TAKE EM OUT FOR A JOGGIN SESSSION OR WRESTLING MATCH, U HAVE TO BEAT EM. DIRRELL WILL NEVER BE A CHAMP, EVER, WRITE THAT DOWN SOMEWHERE AND REMEMBER BOXNBRAINS SAID IT
Dirrell made Froch look awful. I completely underestimated him, he was fast and accurate – he has decent power too. I still dont think he pressed the action enough to win the fight. I thought it was closer than the judges scored it but the overall impression I got was that Dirrell didnt take the belt/win.
brutal fight , nice article froch looked terrible and dirrell had no guts all night until he had to fight late on in the fight , dirrell can come good but im not sure this tournement wiil do his confidence any good and maybe is being pushed too hard too early and could end up like a faded taylor which would be a shame
Good article, if he does start to engage more then he could cause problems for Abraham.
I think Dirrel won the fight! But this fight took place in Nottingham and… It was close but Dirrel won it. Sorry Froch!
dirrel got a good chance to put it right in hes next fight we will see if he has the bottle if he does he can go all the way.iam not saying stand and take punches but do what he did in the last 3rds of the froch fight
Good article, I agree with the most of it.
ty b Says:
October 20th, 2009 at 12:21 am
………………..
Come on, Dirrell dropped to his knees on 4 occasions rather than fight which is illegal, he constantly hugged which is illegal and he kept dropping his head below Frochs’ waist which is illegal.
Lets not pretend Froch fought a dirty fight and Dirrell was clean.
froch lost the fight. maybe dirrell didnt do enough to take the belt from the man on his turf but froch was definently frustrated that he couldnt hit dirrell and fought dirty in order to get some shots to the back of the head. the elbow was also out of control and dirrell held because the ref obviously was not going to anything about either the elbow or the illegel shots, any smart fighter would have held. and they took a point for holding thats professional boxing maybe in an amature fight i could see that. All the great fighters that had long carrers didnt stand and trade shots like the british fans want in a fighter thats why they only have the belt for a few fights then lose and die out. the name of the game is hit without being hit and thats what dirrell did, like ali, like roy jones, like floyd and if boxing turen into trading they might as well take the gloves off and put a cage up. this is supposed to be a sport of true athletes and the sport it taking that away. dirrel needs to go fight for hbo in my opinion showtime is a joke.
sorry that was a complete robbery..DIRRELL BEAT CARL FROCH!!
CARL FROCH LOST TO DIRRELL!!
CAN I MAKE MYSELF ANY CLEARER
exactly. well written and i agree. no matter how anyone looks at it dirrell did not do enough to win, yes he has talent, speed and skill but used it in the wrong way. i want to see a fight not a chase. now nigel benn v gerald mcclellan is what i call a world title fight