By Scott Gilfoid: In two months, former International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) will be taking on the toughest opponent of his career on March 6th against Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) in a Super Six tournament bout at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. Abraham, 29, will be turning 30 next month on February 20th, and is already starting to show signs of aging with his work rate dropping in the past couple of years.
Abraham is going to have to try and dig up some kind of strategy to help bail him out in his fight with the talented American Dirrell, because on paper, Dirrell has the much better overall skills compared to the slow moving Abraham.
Dirrell is faster of hand and feet, busier offensively, taller with longer arms, and the much better fighter on defense. The one and only thing that Abraham has going for him in this fight is a slight power edge. Some people mistakenly think that Abraham has crushing power based on his 12th round knockout win over Jermain Taylor on October 17th in their Super Six fight.
However, Taylor was hurt earlier in the fight from a picture perfect right elbow that Abraham landed in the 9th round that badly hurt Taylor. I think Taylor never adequately recovered from that elbow shot. The form that Abraham had in that elbow was quite excellent.
He had it looking like a punch but then he hooked his right arm enough to catch Taylor square in the grill, causing Taylor to stagger around after getting hit. This is a difficult weapon to defend against, of course, but I think Dirrell has it in him to avoid Abraham’s stray elbows as long as he doesn’t let Abraham to get in too close. Some people may not like this, but I think Dirrell needs to stay on the move for the full 12 rounds to avoid getting hit with one of Abrahams’ big shots.
As long as Dirrell fights hard in the first two and half minutes of every round, he should be fine for the last 30 seconds, which is when Abraham typically comes to life and starts throwing punches. Dirrell should have no problems figuring out how to deal with Abraham’s primitive attacks. He does the same thing every time he tries to attack an opponent, basically bum rushing them at a run and throwing punches the entire time.
For Dirrell, all he needs to do is step to the sides and let Abraham go by and then tag him. Dirrell can’t let Abraham get in close enough to let loose with the stray elbows because those shots are deadly.
Dirrell is coming off a controversial 12 round split decision loss to World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch on October 17th. The loss, a bitter one for Dirrell, puts him with his back against the wall where he absolutely needs to win his next fight against Abraham or else risk not making it to the next round of the Super Six tournament.
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