By Scott Gilfoid: After losing a controversial 12 round unanimous decision to WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch on October 17th, Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) finds himself in a must win situation when he enters the ring for his second fight of the Super Six tournament against Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) on March 27th at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. Dirrell probably is the most skilled fighter in the entire super middleweight division, with speed and moves similar to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

However, in light of the deeply questionable 12 round split decision loss to Froch, a loss which some people refer to as home town brewing, Dirrell has his back against the wall needing a win to make sure he can get to the semi finals of the tournament. In an article at theFlint Journal, Dirrell says “I’m in a do-or-die situation right now.”

Dirrell, 26, injured his back recently while training. The back injury caused Dirrell to postpone his March 6th fight and move it three weeks ahead to the 27th. Dirrell talks about the injury which occurred during a sparring session, “I believe when I turned him and went to throw the right hand, my body wasn’t all the way turned. I reached over to hit him and threw something out. We had the doctor take a look at it, and he told me to take a break.”

Three weeks isn’t very much time for an injury as serious as back problem to heal. Let’s hope that Dirrell will be ready by March 27th, because he might be showing too much courage by trying to come back this soon. But even if he’s not completely back and functioning at half of his optimal level, I think Dirrell will beat the slow and limited Abraham.

Dirrell is much faster than Abraham, better on defense and the much better mover of the two. Abraham is more of a plodder, a fighter that walks his opponents down with a high guard and the bum rushes them with wild combinations. He can punch hard, but nowhere near as hard as some people think he does. He hurt Taylor in the 9th round with a lead right hand and then followed through with his right elbow that landed with a thudding force.

For fans that missed the slow motion replay of the blow, they mistakenly thought that Taylor had been hurt by a right hand alone. But if you watch the fight again and pay close attention, you’ll see the elbow that Abraham landed and the immediate reaction with Taylor staggering around the ring like a drunk.

Abraham says this about the postponement: “Of course I was disappointed when I first head of the postponement, but I am happy to take on Dirrell on March 27. I want him to be in top shape so that he has no excuses once I am done with him. This is the Super Six World Boxing Classic, the best fighting against the best, so I can understand he does not want to face me when he is not at 100 percent.”

It’s good that Abraham isn’t taking a negative outlook on the injury to Dirrell. However, Abraham is deceiving himself if he thinks he’s going to win. Abraham will be the one losing, not Dirrell. I just hope that Abraham doesn’t have any weak excuses to make once the fight is over. Dirrell is going to beat him so conclusively that no one will be able to say anything about the fight, because it will be such a clear cut win by Dirrell.