Do the Abraham, Froch and Kessler lack the needed hand speed and flexibility to win the Super Six tournament?
April 8th, 2010
By Scott Gilfoid: The 2nd round of the Super Six tournament started on March 27th with Andre Dirrell defeating Arthur Abraham by an 11th round disqualification victory. But I’ve seen enough from this fight and the first stage of the Super Six tournament to come to the conclusion that the European fighters look stiff, robotic and almost entirely inflexible with their ring movements and fighting style. It’s quite amazing to see the difference between the stiff robotic Europeans like Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham and Mikkel Kessler compared to the more loose, more limber American fighters like the talented Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward.
Why are the Euro fighters really stiff and robotic looking? Is it because they’re using more weight lifting, less running and less stretching? It’s not just that they’re less flexible. The European fighters in the Super Six seem to be slower as well in terms of hand speed. Ward and Dirrell are blazing fast with their hands and ring movements, while in contrast, Froch, Abraham and Kessler are rather slow.
This isn’t the case with all European fighters, of course, because there are many of them that are incredibly fast like Joe Calzaghe and Andy Lee. However, the European fighters that were picked are painfully slow, as if none of them having any fast twitch reflexes. Lucian Bute, perhaps the best fighter in the super middleweight division, has incredibly fast hands. It’s too bad he didn’t take part in the tournament because he would make things interesting.
At least he would be able to somewhat match Dirrell and Ward with their fast hands and we could see some really amazing boxing match. Thus far, I’ve been disappointed in the fights I’ve seen. Dirrell was just way faster than Froch, and really was making him look bad for much of the fight with his hands speed. Froch turned it physical and the fight became like a mixture of MMA, wrestling a slam dancing. It was ugly.
And in Dirrell’s recent fight with the slow moving Abraham, Dirrell beat him like a punching bag for most of the fight. It was good to see it, but boring at the same time because Abraham was too slow most of the time to land anything. Abraham ended way behind in the fight and fouled out of the bout with a shot to Dirrell’s head after he slipped to the canvas. Would Abraham had done this if he had better hand speed and been able to keep up with Dirrell for the entire fight. I don’t think he would have. The Kessler-Ward fight was another case of a European fighter being too slow to deal with Ward’s fast hands. It really came down to Ward just being way too fast for Kessler, and the fight ended up being a huge mismatch.
Froch, Kessler and Abraham just seem like wax figures at times. They just stand there too much with ther hand either way up by their heads or down by their wastes and don’t seem to move well at all compared to Dirrell and Ward. Allan Green, the replacement for Taylor, is also a fighter with amazing hand speed and ring movement. This is going to be interesting to see him when he gets matched against one of the fighters from Europe.
Tags: 27 Responses to “Do the Abraham, Froch and Kessler lack the needed hand speed and flexibility to win the Super Six tournament?”
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HAHAHAHAHA CLASSIC gilford
its important to note that you can have all the ‘hand speed’ in the world but unfortunately if u are a coward you will get caught out in the end
I’d rather get in the ring with a heart than with “amazing, amazing flexible, amazing hand speed, flexible, amazing”
Ward – scared to fight outside of the USA
Taylor – quitter
Dirrell – cheating coward.
Well done americans haha!
I’m with the Europeans on this one…
Don’t you realize, Guilfoid, that us Europeans is a different breed, yessum boss, we is slow witted and not as physically well built as our masters in the good ole U S of A…but I still think one of our boys will catch Dirrell (hopelfully when he is on his feet) and Ward the way Taylor had his ass whipped and win fights via KO’s and win the tournament…Dirrell is junk, can’t see him winning anything via KO, so he will never obtain a three pointer, Froch, Abraham and Kessler are all capable of notching up the points via KO, so a European is odds on tho win tnhe whole thing.
If Dirrell has to run, clinch, act and defraud an official to win then i suppose theres a good chance the much braver and less spineless way of fighting may just shine through.
Dirrells a better boxer than the 3 Europeans you mention but seeing as hes such a fusy id rather a real man wins it.
Nah they just dont have the running shoes that Dirrell and the other fighters have
I prefer to see punchers like the Europeans, more than runners. Ward and Dirrell have a fighting style that comes from their olympic backgrounds. They are trained to score points and to go for the knock out. To run and score points. Not to stay put and fight.
froch to win the whole thing for real
Well the slow robotic Froch beat your fast handed Dirrell so it don’t mean s h i t. It’s about who’s the best fighter not who’s got the fastest hands if this was true Hagler wouldn’t have ever beaten hearns and Paulie Malignaggi wouldn’t have lost to Ricky Hatton. Again Scott your theory can be pulled to pieces like everything else you say.
well abraham lacked the hand speed to spark clean out two of your boys NOT hahahahahahahahahahahah
olD glass jaw usain bolt dirrell and jermain taylor. I rekon ward will destroy glass jaw dirrell easily.
I have to admit it you do have a point scott, froch and abraham are lacking technically compaired to the american fighters but I would’nt say that Kessler falls into that catagory. I still have a feeling Kessler can still do a fair bit of damage in this tournment and I think he will prove that quite easily against a very 1 dimentional fighter in froch, and that tactically he just had a bad night against Ward, I also agree that Dirrell should have got the decision against froch I wanted Froch to win but he really did get taught a boxing lesson with Dirrell, if Dirrell can actually grow a set and let his hands go instead of holding he can easily win this but I’m still not convinced about his heart.
Froch will beat Abraham, and here’s why – Abraham plods forward and he normally catches up with people eventually and knocks them out. Froch will be too quick for him. Although Carl has been tagged more than a few times, he’s also a savvy fighter and if he feels that AA is too strong, he won’t be leaving his chin out to dry. Carl can take a punch though, and lets not forget this. His fight against Jean Pascal was an amazing fight and Carl took a lot of punches in that fight, against a fighter who has gone up to Light Heavyweight and started knocking those guys over. I’m not saying this is a hands down win for Froch as that would be stupid and just blind patriotism, as I’m aware, and so is Froch, of the dangers that Arthur Abraham brings to the table. Another point is, AA was bowling people over at the weight below Super Middle and Carl is a fully fledged, granite chinned Super Middle. I think it will be a good scrap and I’m really looking forward to it. But for me, Carl wins on points, possibly by a wide margin.
I suppose, as a rule, Europeans may seem like like they fight a certain way, but not all do. But does having a big mouth and fast hands make you a great fighter? I’m not sure?. If anybody actually saw the Froch V Dirrell fight, Dirrell was so negative it was untrue and he didn’t deserve to “win” the title, Froch may not have been hot stuff also but he did enough to “keep” his title. All the talk of being robbed and never fighting away from home again is daft, dust yourself off and get on with it. Ask yourself, was Mr Dirrell winning the fight against Arthur Abraham before the stupid foul he committed in the 11th round? Kessler against Ward was a real surprise as Kessler was, rightfully, favourite to win the fight. Ward had never fought at this level but showed he belonged in this class with a great win. Is Kessler past it? up until before this fight the answer was a resounding NO. We’ll see how the Froch/Kessler fight pans out. I for one thought Carl would beat Kessler anyway but the Ward result has took a bit of the shine off this fight, but it still leaves us with a few questions, Is Kessler past it? Was it just a bad night for the Viking Warrior? Is Froch as good as us Brits and he think he is? He’s fighting away and it doesn’t concern him, think back to Jermain Taylor when Carl was away and behind on the cards, the ko in the last seconds was devastating and Taylor should not have been allowed in the Super 6, which was ultimatley proved in his fight with Abraham. I think Ward and Froch are the 2 fighters to beat in this tournament. After Froch comes through Kessler, I fancy him to beat Abraham too and progress into the final stages. Froch V Ward would be a dream final.
okay this is my prediction.. froch to beat kessler by ko..kessler myt have the better of the 1st few rounds and outbox froch but this fight will turn into a war in the later rounds and froch’s heart will get him thru again..i think froch will stop him in rounds 8-10.
ward to ko green i think that is pretty obvious to most people who know anything about boxing..the one guy green fought at the top level beat him(edison miranda, who has been beaten by ward pretty convincingly)and ward does have a lot of power which he will show(in my opinion ward would beat calzaghe in his prime but ye..)
stage3
not gonna explain why but just give my predictions
ward split decision against dirrell (close fight)
the froch abraham fight i think UD for the home fighter not sure who that is..i think its froch tho.
kessler vs green again is a difficult one but i dont think kessler will have much left so UD green..
if it goes as i think then ward will be top aong with froch on 7 points..abraham will be 3rd with 3 points and dirrell or green 4th with 2 points..not quite sure what it comes down to if 2 fighters have the same number of points tho.
Abraham wasn’t “slow”, “robotic”, or “stiff”. He was CONSIDERABLY SHORTER than Dirrell, so he had problems with his reach disadvantage. Kessler was slow, Froch a bit stiff.
Question is if Abraham shows up as unflexible in further altercations with Ward or Dirrell. I developed a bulletproof gameplan for him, but chances are he won’t use it, as it’s “too negative”.
jake lamotta didn’t have hand speed and was a brawler yet he had a pretty good career, so do some history before you write off people for being slow, hang on do you know anything about any other boxers than the ones in the super six and haye, but saying that you don’t know much about them either.
Froch or Abraham should win the super six… they hit too hard and have great chins.
I don’t give Ward a chance against Abraham so Dirrell is my dark horse for the whole thing.
Taylor & dirrell are only 10 rnd fighters world titles are 12 andre ward though looks the whole package, I can see a froch v ward final
Ward wins it.
AA was gonna beat dirrell aka the douche but he faked his way out of the match but yea more hand speed wouldnt hurt them
There are other boxers out there other than Haye and the Super Six. Your a joke Gilfoid!! I enjoy your articles just to have a laugh but seriously. Stop writing about Dirrell. He isn’t that bloody good. Get over him. Froch beat him fair and square. Get over it. I am getting over you writing every single article about him. Are you related or what?
I agree 100 % with the writer. The only reason, that we have world champs in Europe, is because of the many flimsy titles that exist in pro boxing today. Men like Calzaghe and the Klits are the execption to the rule.
“Do the Euro fighters lack the hand speed and fleibility to win the super six”? Wow do things change, coming into the tournament, the Europeans were the favourites to win the super six.
But what the European fighters lack in hand speed and flexibility, they do make up for power and good chins.
weak chin! Build a bridge and “Get over it”!
Kessler looks to be finished with boxing, period. Unless he’s been reborn or something.
Abraham could still win it since the rules of the Super Six give an extra point for knockouts, which are his specialty.
I think Froch is just too slow in general to win. Yeah, he’s got a chin but not really much else.
dirrell was going to get put to sleep in the abraham fight so he acted and went out the loser way ahahahahhaha