Abraham vs. Dirrell: Will Arthur’s clamshell defense be his downfall?
February 13th, 2010
By Scott Gilfoid: A lot of boxing fans make a big production about former International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham’s clamshell defense and feel that he’ll be able to shut down whatever offense that Dirrell brings to the ring in their stage 2 Super Six tournament bout on March 6th. I think they’re wrong about Abraham. His clamshell defense is going to lead to Abraham getting drilled to pieces by the talented, speedy Dirrell.
Abraham reminds me a lot of Joshua Clottey with his high guard, low work rate and tendency to be economical with his punches. People say that Abraham has one-punch power because of his knockout wins over Edison Miranda (in the second fight) and his recent 12 round knockout over Jermain Taylor, but that’s completely wrong.
Miranda was badly weight drained when he fought Abraham for the second fight having taken off 30 pounds very quickly to make the middleweight limit for the fight. And Taylor had been knocked out months earlier in April by Carl Froch before stepping in the ring with Abraham. Besides that, Abraham hurt Taylor in the 9th round of their fight with a big right elbow. I don’t think he ever recovered from that shot.
But as far as Abraham’s clamshell defense goes, I sure hope Abraham tries that primitive technique against Dirrell on March 6th, because he’s going to take terrible beating if he does. That kind of thing won’t work against a modern fighter like Dirrell. Abraham will probably do what he always does and just cover up for two-thirds of every round and try to conserve strength.
However, if Dirrell will pull a Manny Pacquiao on Abraham if/when he uses that passive garbage by firing away with punch after punch. I can see the referee possibly stepping in and some point and pulling the plug on Abraham if he doesn’t come out of his clam and star throwing some punches. I can understand a little bit of energy conserving but not when he’s getting drilled with thirty shots to every one that he’s throwing.
When Abraham comes out of his turtle shell to start throwing punches at the end of the round, Dirrell will be ready for him by using his lateral movement to stay out of the way of Abraham’s wild shots. Abraham won’t likely hit anything. He has this bad habit of throwing the widest punches that I’ve ever seen.
It kind of reminds me of watching an batman shot with Adam West, playing Batman, is throwing these wide haymakers that are connecting to the heads of villains. But it looks so bad. I always wondered why the producers of the show didn’t have someone take West to the side and show him to throw punches, because he looked awful. Dirrell is going to eat Abraham up if he tries throwing that wide stuff in their fight.
Tags: 17 Responses to “Abraham vs. Dirrell: Will Arthur’s clamshell defense be his downfall?”
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“I sure hope Abraham tries that primitive technique against Dirrell on March 6th”
Scott, please tell me your a betting man? Im ready to make some money…
DIRRELL KISSES THE CANVAS!!
How he wins point decisions ??? its called good defence and offense, blocks most of the shots thrown and throws accurate punches .. easy
Despite the clam defense and fairly low work rate I still had King arthur way ahead on points against taylor and not really needing a KO..I’m not sure how he always wins points decisions with his style but he does! Also the punch that sent Taylor to sleep was a beautifal straight punch not a wide hook.
I cant wait until Dirrell gets destroyed by the much more talented of the two Andre’s when they meet!
super fantastic super-cool fighter against a clam, yeh we get it, you’re 16….batman was a spoof…do you know what that is? hence the pow and boom in little balloons over the actors heads…but then you probably see that in real life from the way you write……………my prediction…a dirrell headbut stops the fight and they go to the scorecards…serious about that mate
DIRRELL TO THE HOSPITAL AS TAYLOR DID AFTER THE FIGHT LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Hey frochs sucks, we felt the same when Calzaghe smoke your Jeff lacy Hoping and Jones!! and who have got the best two heavy weight Champion in the world? that right they Europeans soft lad,and don’t forget to post on here when Abraham smokes Dirrell the Gazelle.
i’m a big froch fan and although i maintain that froch won im the first one to admit that dirrell did have the tools to beat him he just didnt use them. same goes against abraham. if dirrell uses his speed and lateral movement he could very well take his head off. if he doesn’t then he could end up on his back.
At this point, I don’t think anyone wants to fight Abraham. No one’s been able to solve his peekaboo style , he is 31-0 soon to be 32-0 . As for Dirrell , he’s going to come out of the tournament with 0 points yes zero points.
I hope Abraham KO’s Dirrell in round 1 – Would you still consider Dirrell to be super talented and super amazing then? How about round 2? Perhaps if he drops in round 12 then he will still be great eh… keep on believing…
SCOTT, WHY ON EARTH IS IT THAT ONLY BOXERS FROM AMERICA FLOAT YOUR BOAT. HONESTLY, WHAT WILL YOU WRITE IF ABRAHAM KNOCKS DIRRELL OUT COLD.
YOU DONT GIVE ANYONE OUTSIDE OF AMERICA ANY CREDIT. DIRRELL WAS NOT BAD AGAINST FROCH AND THAT WAS CONSIDERING HOW BAD FROCH WAS. FROCH LOOKED WELL OUT OF HIS LEAGUE AGAINST A SPEEDY TECHNICLE FIGHTER, BUT DID DIRRELL TAKE ADVANTAGE, NO. HE RAN AND HELD WHEN HE OBVIOUSLY COULD OF WON ON THE SPEED FACTOR ALONE. ABRAHAM IS A GOOD BOXER AND HIS CLOSED DEFENSE IS GOOD ALSO, BUT ITS OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO ISNT SCOTT GILFOID THAT HE HAS AWESOME KO POWER THAT COULD EASILY PUT YOUR SUPERSTAR DIRRELL WELL ASLEEP.
His defence is better than Frochs and Froch beat Dirrell. People will say Froch DIDNT beat Dirrell but i think the fact is he did.
Also Dirrell just stopped boxing against Froch and went on the run even though hed dominated him to that point. If i was Frochs power that did it then Dirrells in even more trouble cuz Abraham hits harder than Froch.
the only way i see his defense being a handicap is if it turns out to be a decision bout. Lets not forget that although Taylor is not the mover that Dirrell is, he tried firing punches at Abraham and i didn’t help him one bit because of Abraham’s defense. Come fight night we will see if Dirrell’s lateral movement is enough.
what a great article! Magnificent. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
And why would the ref stop the fight if the punches are hitting the glows all nite long and that’s “if” he even tries throwing punches and doesn’t run like a lil b!@t(h.
“Abraham hurt Taylor in the 9th round of their fight with a big right elbow” LOL, excuses excuses excuses, no matter what the KING does you come out with your bu!!$h!t excuses. where do u see an elbow??? are u blind ? Let me put it this way your boy Dirrell is going to get KTFO and let me see what kind of bu!!$h!t u come out with when that happens.