Will we be seeing Froch vs. Dirrell II?
November 4th, 2009
By David Lahr: The World Boxing Conference put out the following statement about a potential rematch between WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and American challenger Andre Direll: “if a rematch could be scheduled without interfering with the [Super Six] tournament it will be approved. If it cannot then Dirrell will become the mandatory challenger after the tournament has finished..” This is all well and good, but the chances of their being a rematch while the tournament takes place are remote at this time. Froch has an upcoming match against Mikkel Kessler and Dirrell will be facing Arthur Abraham.
Froch will be 34 by then, and Dirrell 29. Froch will be older, possibly minus his title and there won’t be as much interest in boxing fans seeing the fight. The same goes for Dirrell. If he does badly in the rest of the Super Six tournament, what point will there be in seeing him fight Froch in 2010 or 2011? Both fighters would be seen as tarnished if they don’t excel in the rest of the Super Six tournament. It might make for a good fight for fans, but it won’t have the appeal that it would if an immediate rematch took place at this time while the interest is still there.
If Dirrell does become a mandatory, it could be for Kessler, who is predicted to win the Super Six tournament. Again, it won’t be much of a big deal if Dirrell is beaten by Abraham and Andre Ward, Dirrell’s next two opponents in the Super Six tournament.
Dirrell narrowly lost a 12 round split decision to Froch on October 17th in a fight that was held in Nottingham, England, Froch’s home city and country. Froch was the aggressor throughout the fight, but not necessarily the effective aggressor. Although Froch came forward most of the fight, he missed with many of his punches and found it difficult to land anything in the fight.
The British crowd none the less cheered every big swing that Froch made, even though most of them were missing badly. Froch seemed too slow to connect to the fast moving Dirrell. The bout suddenly changed in the 5th when Froch body slammed Dirrell to the canvas in a rough wrestling type move. The referee stood back and didn’t take points away, however. From there, the bout disintegrated into foul plagued bout with Froch holding & hitting, throwing rabbit punches and shoving Dirrell around the ring.
For his part, Dirrell did a great deal of holding. The referee decided to take a point away from Dirrell, the visiting fighter in the 10th round for holding, but let Froch get away with his own fouls without taking away points. It seemed unfair to some boxing fans that the referee didn’t take points away from Froch for the more dangerous fouls.
In the 10th round, Dirrell staggered Froch with a hard left to the head. In the 11th and 12th, Dirrell appeared to be in control of the fight. However, one of the judges scored the 11th and 12th rounds for Froch, which fan counter to the feelings of many of the boxing fans who witnessed the fight.
One thing can be sure about the outcome of the Froch-Dirrell fight, neither fighter came out the winner of the bout. Dirrell looked bad with his holding, falling down and constant running. And Froch looked equally bad with his fouling, inability to land his punches and his awkward look. Froch got the win, of course, but his stock has gone down in the minds of many boxing fans.
Tags: 12 Responses to “Will we be seeing Froch vs. Dirrell II?”
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I’m from Nottingham and even I thought Froch should NOT have won that fight. No way. It was draw. Dirrell made Froch look slow and stupid, swinging wildly and catching him with some good shots but as like others have said here, he needed to capitalize on it by getting in close and finishing the job. All Froch wanted was a slugfest which he will probably get in Kessler and I imagine Kessler will beat him.
Not a great fight at all and to be honest I wouldn’t want to see a rematch. It was obvious the two styles were totally off. The rematch would be more of the same with still no satisfactory conclusion in my opinion.
If there was a rematch it should definately be in the states though. I can can see Froch agreeing to that. Afterall, he risked his belt against Taylor.
if dat fight took place in the USA,we have a new WBC champ right now,Dirrell def beat Froch no question
Great article, unbiased! Another writer from this site seems to write with a major bias about this bout in particular, and it has incensed many readers especially the European readers. I thought Dirrell won! I would like to see a rematch after the tourney, that is if neither fighter gets totally destroyed in their remaining bouts. If there is a rematch, it should be in the U.S.A.! I definitely would watch it again.
I thought Direll would win against Froch . But he just ran too much . that certainly was past the point of sticking and moving , when your opponent has to run after you . that being said . When Direll did finally stop and fight he was beating Froch and will do so and win the rematch .. BUT who wants to see it ? The fight was slow and dull putting it lightly .
Dirrell dont deserve a rematch, and he wont make the final, no heart, character or courage for the job
Styles make fights; Froch is too slow to catch Dirrell and Dirrell will not stop running. Unless these two are the last men standing, which is highly unlikely, who would want to see a rematch?
Heavy G you should write – that’s the most concise yet enough said view of the froch dirrel fight i’ve read so far. And yup it was cr@p to watch. Froch badly needs to work on his speed and his footwork if he’s going to do better in the rest of the tournement. If Dirrel isn’t showing better signs of aggression after 20 or so pro fights I can’t see it suddenly happening now.
The trouble with the first fight is that even after 12 rounds, it is not obvious who is the better man. Dirrel refused to mix it up with his older opponent for most of the fight. He was afraid to take a chance and get in range of the hard hitting Englishman. The fight was a stinker, but that is the fault of Dirrel. At least Froch TRIED to fight.
The irony is that if Dirrell would actually step in a little more with Froch and try to outpunch him instead of outrun him, I think he stands a good chance to edge him in the exchanges and win a clear victory. He has the youth,fast hands and reflexes to do it.
Load of bollocks Dirrell lost and will do against Abraham gets use to it he’s over hype just like lacy end of.
The question is; ‘who wants to see them in a rematch?’ The bout was a stinker and the exeption that proves the rule that styles make fights. I think each fighter will look much better against a fighter with a different skillset. Maybe if both fighters improve, Dirrell less scared and Froch learning to cut of the ring but I don’t think it will ever be a good matchup. In fact, Dirrell has to survive ‘King Arthur’ first, that might be hard enough.
it might make a good fight thats a good one
Wait till after the super six. It will postpone all the schedules, which is just stupid.