Shaw: “Maybe we [Dirrell] should have traded from round one” [with Froch]

By Boxing News - 10/19/2009 - Comments

shaw5644By William Mackay: In an article at the BBC, previously undefeated super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell’s manager Gary Shaw admitted after the fight that Dirrell should have fought differently against WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch last Saturday night, commenting “we kept telling him [Dirrell] to box, but after watching him in rounds 10, 11 and 12, trading with Froch, maybe we should have traded from round one.”

That’s a really honest appraisal by Shaw about the fight, because at least he was open minded enough to tell it straight by admitting that Dirrell wasted too much time boxing Froch instead of trying to engage with him. Dirrell, 27, moved and clinched continuously from rounds one through nine, keeping away from Froch but stinking the Nottingham arena up by not fighting.

It was only until the 10th round, following a penalization due to constant holding, that Dirrell finally started throwing punches. What he, and many boxing fans discovered was, that Dirrell was more than a match with Froch when fighting him. Dirrell didn’t realize until it was far too late that Froch wasn’t as good as he and his manager Shaw thought he was.

Dirrell paid the price by giving Froch too much respect and not doing the things that got him to this point in the Super Six tournament. In his past fights, Dirrell has always gone after his opponents and blasted them apart with speedy combinations. Dirrell didn’t do that with Froch, and failed to even try until the 10th round. Instead, Dirrell gave the 32-year-old Froch far too much respect, perhaps believing that he was the steely chinned fighter that many people had said he was.

What Dirrell proved, once he started throwing his punches, was that Froch was human after all and capable of being hurt by punches. Dirrell also proved that he could fight Froch and still make him miss relatively easy while standing in front of him. Dirrell didn’t need to move in order to make Froch miss, he showed.

“His [Dirrell] movement round the ring may not be pleasing to Carl because he wants someone to stand dead in front of him so he can knock their lights out,” Shaw said. But what Shaw fails to mention is that it’s nearly impossible to beat a champion like Froch in his own backyard by adopting a defensive style of fighting. The judges weren’t going to give a way Froch’s WBC title just because he missed all night long and was out-landed in the fight by a significant margin.

They were only going to let Dirrell get the title if he could stand his ground and prove that he was better at Froch at fighting him. Maybe if this was a more popular fighter like Floyd Mayweather Jr. the judges would give Dirrell the nod in a fight against Froch, but Dirrell’s not all that popular at this time in his career and still needs to grit it out when facing champion-level opposition.

The loss, as many people say, might be a good thing for Dirrell because he’ll know what he did wrong against Froch and can plan to fight differently in the future. If Dirrell fails to make changes in his style of fighting, then he deserves to lose. But one thing is sure, he won’t be able to win in the Super Six tournament by fighting defensively against fighters like Arthur Abraham and Andre Ward.

Dirrell has a lot to feel good about his performance against Froch despite losing the fight. Dirrell showed incredible hand speed, great foot movement and an uncanny ability to make punches miss. He proved that he can go 12 rounds without tiring out and showed a good chin as well.



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