Abraham’s management to file a protest to have an immediate rematch

By Boxing News - 03/28/2010 - Comments

Image: Abraham’s management to file a protest to have an immediate rematchBy Scott Gilfoid: Arthur Abraham’s German promotional company Sauerland plans on filing a protest over Abraham’s 11th round disqualification loss to Andre Dirrell in their stage 2 Super Six tournament bout last Saturday night at the Joe Louis Arena, in Detroit, Michigan. With Abraham well behind in the fight and need of a knockout to win in the 11th round, Abraham hit Dirrell with a right hand to the head after Dirrell had slipped on the canvas logo and was on one knee.

The punch hurt Dirrell, knocking him unconscious for a short period of time. Referee Lawrence Cole immediately disqualified Abraham, who instead of admitting that he had made a mistake by hitting Dirrell while he was down, called him an actor. Abraham said later that he couldn’t see that Dirrell was down on the canvas when he threw the punch and that he had already winded up to throw the shot and couldn’t stop. Abraham said “I was already in the middle of throwing it and could not stop.” Abraham’s promoter Wilfried Sauerland wasn’t happy that Dirrell was able to get away with throwing low blows.

It’s unfortunate that Abraham doesn’t understand why he should have been disqualified. That’s worrisome, because if he doesn’t see why he was disqualified it makes you wonder whether he has a clear idea about the rules in boxing. There’s certain things that just aren’t permitted and if you let a fighter get away with them and the make excuses later by saying the other fighter was faking that they were hurt, you could have that as being an excuse that other fighters use to get away with fouls.

What Abraham did in throwing a hard right hand with Dirrell on the canvas was inexcusable. Abraham should have immediately owned up to what he had done rather than saying that Dirrell was acting. It made himself look bad by doing that because not only did Abraham throw an illegal blow while his opponent was down, but also by making it seem like Dirrell was faking, Abraham comes across as a dirty fighter and a poor sport.

What he should have done was admit what he did was wrong, apologize and then let the boxing fans decide for themselves who was to blame in this case. It’s hard to blame Dirrell, even if you think he was faking being hurt. There’s no question he was hit while he was down. You can’t escape that. The question is whether Dirrell was truly hurt or not.

That’s something that won’t be reversed on appeal. I think Abraham’s promotional team is wasting their time with this. They should be apologizing, admitting wrong and the moving on from this. Abraham needs to learn that he’s going to have problems against some of the slicker fighters like Dirrell and Andre Ward in the Super Six tournament. Before last Saturday, Abraham was largely shielded from talented fighters like this by the fact that he’s fought most of his career in the middleweight division, which has been horribly poor for the past five years.

With the talent pool incredibly thin, Abraham has been able to beat the over-matched opposition that has been served up to him. Abraham has had things even easier, as his German management has often put him in with weaker opposition during his non-mandatory defenses. So after having things his way as a champion of a weak division for three years, Abraham is now having problems when put in with a good fighter like Dirrell.

You can expect Abraham to continue to struggle when and if he gets matched with Ward. The blue print was made last Saturday night by Dirrell in how to beat Abraham, and I’m not talking about being hit while on the canvas. Dirrell boxed circles around Abraham all night long, making him look limited. By the 11th round, Abraham had only one chance to win the fight and that was by knockout. Abraham will likely struggle just as bad, if not worse, against Ward when the time comes for them to fight in the future.

As for Abraham’s protest to have a rematch with Dirrell, I don’t see him having a chance of that occurring. Abraham had his chance and blew it by losing his cool and landing the shot when Dirrell was down. Abraham now has a loss to show for his loss of self control, and he’ll have more losses in the future if he doesn’t learn to manage his emotions.



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