Froch inflicts first defeat on Dirrell in uninspiring contest – Boxing Results

By Boxing News - 10/18/2009 - Comments

froch56789By Matt Flanagan: Carl Froch successfully defended his WBC title against Andre Dirrell tonight in their opening fight of the Super 6 tournament. After reading all the repetitive articles on this site, that clearly lacked any objectivity, I was hoping that Froch would knock out Dirrell just to shut him, and a few other people up. This did not happen and in truth was not a pretty fight, but Froch took the fight by way of a split decision.

I thought the scores were very close, and that Dirrell may have just done enough, but I can also see why the judges thought Froch won. As we know, scoring is subjective, and there are arguments for both sides but Diaz v Malignaggi it was not. Only the most blinkered people will say it was a hometown decision, it clearly wasn’t, but there will always be sour grapes following fights like this.

Dirrell’s style did not suit Froch who was not at his best, whereas Dirrell probably did the best he could. His hit and run style countered Froch’s stand and trade style, leading Froch to admit after the fight that it was not a very satisfying victory “Andre Dirrell is very fast, very skilful, very slick; if you couple that together with negativity, which is what he brought tonight, you’re going to get a bit of a dud fight.”

Froch said after the fight “A win’s a win, he can’t expect to come to Nottingham and beat me by running and holding and complaining.” While getting involved in a trading session with Froch would have been risky, I think that Dirrell’s negativity ultimately cost him. Firstly Dirrell was constantly running away from Froch, secondly numerous times he threw himself on the floor just as he was coming under attack. Thirdly was his constant spoiling – holding Froch all the time, which led to a point deduction. Lastly was his non-stop complaining during the fight – did anyone point out that it was a fight, not a tea party? Dirrell carried on his complaining outside the ring, saying that the point deduction was unfair and that he had no warnings. That is simply not true, the referee warned him several times about his holding and general complaining.

Dirrell’s reputation will have been enhanced despite the defeat, and it is clear that he is a talented fighter. He had never fought 12 rounds prior to this evening and answered a lot of questions that had previously been asked. That said, I still think Dirrell will struggle to make an impact in this tournament and do think he is overhyped and overrated. I say this despite the above praise because he probably fought the best fight he could tonight, but still came up short, when many pundits were predicting an easy nights work.

To succeed in fighting the best fighters in the division, Dirrell needs the ambition and bravery to match his talent. Maybe the decision would have been different tonight if he had approached the fight differently and been more positive. His next fight against Arthur Abraham could be a similar fight to this one with Dirrell trying his best to avoid the more powerful Abraham.

Froch, who arguably has the hardest draw of any of the fighters in this tournament (in that he is facing the 2 pre tournament favourites in the 1st round) now faces the prospect of a unification bout against Dane Mikkel Kessler, assuming Kessler beats Andre Ward next month. This fight will surely be more up his street in terms of styles because Kessler will not be afraid to slug it out with Froch and should make for an intriguing contest.

I can’t wait for the 3rd fight in the opening round, so far it is Europe 2-0 USA, can Kessler make it a hat-trick of wins for the untalented, over protected Europeans?!



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