Dirrell may have to punish Abraham badly to get the win

By Scott Gilfoid: After listening to the On the Ropes program at my favorite site East Side Boxing, I think Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) is going to have to punish the slow-moving unbeaten Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) a lot worse than I thought for Dirrell to get the win. Abraham said “It’s better to die in the ring rather than to lose.” For a fighter to talk like that, it means a lot. I think Abraham is the kind of fighter that once he starts really getting hammered by Dirrell, he’s going to pull out every trick in the book to try and turn the fight around in his favor. I’m talking EVERY trick in the book here.

I’ve seen a number of Abraham’s fights, maybe 10 to 15 of them, and I got to say I’ve seen him throw some mean looking elbows, rabbit punches, forearms, low blows and even knees. I think Abraham is capable of turning the fight into an ugly foul-plagued bout if he starts getting dominated the way that Carl Froch was by Dirrell in the early going of their fight last October.

Abraham is a different kind of fighter. He doesn’t have the hand speed, defensive ability and the quickness to get around the ring like the blazing fast Dirrell. Abraham is like a blue collar fighter, someone who wasn’t blessed with a lot of talent but who gets by using his brute strength and by being clever. However, Abraham hasn’t fought many quality opponents during his seven year pro career.

Although Abraham held down the International Boxing Federation middleweight title for three years, defending it 10 times, but his opposition was pretty average at best. You can call them all contenders, but I saw each one of Abraham’s opponents during that time, with the exception of Edison Miranda, as being B level opponents. That’s not Abraham’s fault. It’s the fault of the low quality fighters that are currently in the middleweight division in the recent years. The division has been suffering from a lack of talent since Bernard Hopkins moved up in weight in 2006.

Abraham is going to try and make things rough for the talented Dirrell, and I expect Abraham to fight his hear out, but that isn’t going to work. All that will mean is that Dirrell will have to beat him much worse than he would have done otherwise. Abraham can bring in a bunch of cheerleaders to the fight for all that matters, but he’s still going to get pounded by Dirrell in the fight.

The reason is Dirrell is the much more talented fighter, and that will outweigh how the determination that Abraham is bringing to the fight. If Dirrell was to stand in one place all night long, and let the slow moving, slow punching Abraham get off all night long with his wide shots, then I think Abraham would have a chance at winning. I still don’t think he would win because Dirrell is so much faster than him, but he’d have a chance.

However, Dirrell will be moving all night long, peppering the sloth-like Abraham with shots and keeping him at the end of his punches. Abraham can take punches all night long if he wants to, but that doesn’t mean he will be any more competitive than he was otherwise. He’s too slow and limited. That’s the problem. Abraham won’t be able to land any of his bruising shots and he won’t be able to turn the fight into a dirty, foul plagued affair either, because Dirrell won’t be there for him to be effective with that kind of fighting.

And given that the fight is being held at the Joe Louis Arena, in Detroit, Michigan, which is only 60 miles from Dirrell’s home city of Flint, Michigan, it means that the referee probably won’t allow Abraham to get away with his fouling the same way he might get away with it if the fight was being held in Germany.

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