Dirrell-Abraham: Andre needs to fight more positive this time

By Boxing News - 12/04/2009 - Comments

dirrell43243By Peter Wells: Andre Dirrell the young American finds himself against an even tougher challenge than his first fight in the Super Six. After narrowly losing to British World Boxing Council Super Middleweight champion Carl Froch, he now fights also unbeaten Armenian-German Arthur Abraham. Dirrell needs to fight much more positively this time around despite being in the US; although the American’s don’t always go for their own fighters. This is a tough fight to call, I see Dirrell winning through running and keeping the quick combinations coming in and making Arthur miss and pay. But on the other hand Abraham is impossible to hit unless he’s hitting you and has the power to knock anyone in the tournament out.

Now Andre’s biggest problem is his negativity when he doesn’t want to get hit, he will run and hold and try to spoil the show, as he did against Carl. I’m not saying he always does it, but Arthur and Froch have near enough the same power. Andre will find it much harder to find Abraham, because of his guard, but going downstairs is his best option. He has to stay relatively close and get shots down the middle of Arthur’s guard and then open up with hooks.

Arthur’s biggest problem is if Andre stands their and looks positive, and fires away, even if most of the shots are blocked, they will catch the judges eyes as he isn’t constantly running away. Then theirs his worst problem, when he attacks he tends to forget about defence instead hoping he can catch his opponent and they won’t bother firing back. But he leaves huge gaps for clever boxers to counter him.

If Andre doesn’t run and is clever enough to catch Abraham while he’s coming in and not get caught flush himself; then he could be in for a big win. One thing is for sure; don’t expect Dirrell to knock Abraham out, it’s not going to happen. For Abraham he just needs to be able to hold off the attacks from Dirrell and be more cautious when coming in.

Now I come down to a conclusion; I expect Dirrell to find his rhythm early and get through with some good shots to redden and bruise the face of Arthur by round 5. Abraham will start to get off with big shots, but Andre will be gone before any damage is done. Dirrell will start looking very negative by round 9 and will start to try and hold. Arthur will shake Dirrell a few time but not enough to floor him or cause the referee to intervene. By the end of the fight, both fighters will be badly bruised and it will be super close fight which will probably end in a questionable decision either way.



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