Abraham vs. Dirrell: Andre won’t let Arthur get his shots off

By Scott Gilfoid: When you’re dealing with a fighter who has almost no hand speed or ability to move around the ring the last thing you want to do is make it easy on them by just standing in front of them to let them punch. This is why Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s), an extraordinary boxer, won’t be making it easy on former International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) in their March 27th fight at the Joe Louis Arena, in Detroit, Michigan. Abraham, 30, obviously would like nothing better than for Dirrell to stand and trade shots with him at close range.

You can’t blame Abraham for that. He’s short, slow and doesn’t have a good ability to move around the ring without plodding or rushing awkwardly. That would be like a speedy Roy Jones Jr. type of fighters fighting in a small cage with a slow 300 pound football lineman. Why do that when a fighter like Dirrell has quick hands and an ability to move around the ring to create angles on the slow fighter.

We’re not talking about running here. Let’s be straight about this. Dirrell will not be running from Abraham, just as Dirrell wasn’t running against WBC super middleweight Carl Froch in their stage 1 Super Six tournament fight on October 17th in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England. Froch fans, who may not be used to seeing an American with movement like Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali moving around the ring, but that wasn’t running.

It’s called boxing. Some of the fighters from Europe are going to have to get used to it and get up to speed in the 21st century. The sport has evolved in the past 40 years and Dirrell is what we call a modern fighter. Abraham is going to have to learn on the job on March 27th or else he’s going to get royally spanked by Dirrell for 12 one-sided rounds.

The problem for Abraham is that he’s going to have major problems trying to get his shots off. Abraham has been used to having his mostly European opposition stand directly in front of him, making it easy for him to find them with his slow punches. He fights like a mummy. Seriously, it’s like fighting a big bear and then making it easy for it to maul and claw you by just standing in front of it.

Every time I see one of Abraham’s fights in the past where his clueless opposition just stood in front of him, I want to scream and shake some sense into his opponents. None of them fought him correctly, not one, and that includes American Jermain Taylor. They all blew it by being there for Abraham and made it easy for him not to have to plod around the ring to find them.

Believe me, Abraham won’t be able to land his slow punches against Dirrell, because he isn’t going to be fighting him in a small box. Dirrell is going to use the entire ring and make Abraham use his short legs to find him. This is going to be a major mismatch for Dirrell, you can’t count on that.

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