By Scott Gilfoid: It’s now looking like the talented American Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) will be facing unbeaten former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) at New York’s Madison Square Garden instead of in Abraham’s home country of Germany.
That’s especially bad news for fans of Abraham, because Dirrell is arguably the most talented fighter in the Super Six tournament and he’s coming off of what many boxing fans feel was a controversial loss to WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch in Nottingham, England. Many people felt that Froch got in effect a home town decision over Dirrell. Indeed, I had Dirrell winning the fight eight rounds to three with one even.
I would have liked to have give Froch more rounds because I think he’s a great fighter but with all the missing he was doing and the fouling he resorted to, made it impossible for me to score the fight for Froch.
Abraham, 29, defeated Jermain Taylor by a 12th round knockout in his last fight on October 17th in the Super Six tournament. Based on that impressive win, many boxing fans feel that Abraham will beat Dirrell. I’m not so easily impressed, though, because I saw the entire fight and didn’t focus on one specific part of the bout like many boxing fans seem to be doing. Abraham looked awful up until the 9th rounds, just covering up mostly and every once in a while rushing madly at Taylor and throwing some of the most amateurish punches I’ve even ever witnessed from a pro fighter.
Abraham looked slow and limited throughout the fight. In the 9th, Abraham nailed Taylor with a textbook right elbow to the head that badly hurt Taylor. From there, Abraham took over the fight because Taylor seemed to not recover from that beautiful elbow shot. That’s the thing with Abraham; you have to watch his elbows because he’s deadly with them.
Never fear, though, Dirrell will be much too fast and clever to get hit with the few shots that Abraham throws in the fight. Abraham is maybe a little faster than Froch, but I think Abraham is much worse than Froch because he doesn’t throw as many punches as him. Dirrell won’t have any problems avoiding Abraham’s wild rushes at the end of each round. At the same time, it will be easier for Dirrell to win the fight because he won’t have to worry about the judges being influenced by the home crowds.
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