By Scott Gilfoid: Super middleweight Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s), arguably the most talented of the Super Six tournament contestants, will be facing the tournament leader unbeaten Arthur Abraham on (31-0, 25 KO’s) on March 6th at the Agua Caliente Casino, Rancho Mirage, California. Supposedly, this is home field advantage for Dirrell, since he’s an American and Abraham is fighting out of Germany. However, Dirrell is from Flint, Michigan, which is many miles away from Rancho Mirage, California, so it’s really not all that much of an advantage for the 26-year-old Dirrell.
In an interview at the Flint Journal at mlive.com, Dirrell talks about how he’s gained confidence from his questionable 12 round split decision loss to WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch last October. Dirrell says “That really put me in a great state of mind. It showed I can go 12 rounds, and it showed I can fight anyone.” Up until that fight, the longest that Dirrell had gone in a fight was 10 rounds in a fight two years prior against Curtis Stevens in 2007.
Dirrell appeared to dominate Froch in their fight, but came out on the losing end in a fight that took place in Froch’s hometown city of Nottingham, England. In Dirrell’s next match of the Super Six tournament, he’s taking on the 29-year-old Abraham, who has a reputation of having an impregnable airtight defense. Abraham holds his arms up in a high guard much of the time when defending, and is difficult to hit because of this. Dirrell, who has a keen boxing mind, spotted this flaw in Abraham’s armor, saying “I just have to try to get around that. It’s important to go to the body early and get those hands to drop, and then capitalize on his [Abraham] mistakes. I have to beat him to the punch.”
This shouldn’t be all that hard, because Abraham has a passive defense much like welterweight Joshua Clottey. When Abraham is covering up, he tends to wait until his opponent has finished landing their barrage of punches before he starts to try and throw back. He doesn’t throw counter punches at all. If he fights in that passive, amateurish style against Dirrell, he’s going to get eaten alive by Andre’s lightning fast punches.
Dirrell can literally land 30 shots in next to no time, and if Abraham keeps his high guard like that in their fight, Dirrell will work his vulnerable body and then come upstairs and tee off on Abraham’s head when he drops his gloves. Even with Abraham’s high guard up, Dirrell will be able to land around the sides of it.
Dirrell also has learned from his loss to Froch, and has spotted some things that he did wrong in the fight. Dirrell says “I am working on being precise with my punches. A lot of times when I make people miss, I get out of there. I need to stay in there and take advantage and keep the fight in the center of the ring.”
Dirrell is exactly right. He needs to keep his slow moving, slow-handed opponents like Froch and Abraham in the center of the ring where they are almost totally harmless because of their nonexistent hand speed. Dirrell doesn’t need to give Abraham any kind of advantage by letting him get close to Dirrell by the ropes. And Dirrell, with his skillful head movement, he can easily stay in front of his opponents at the center ring and make them miss over and over again like a young Roy Jones Jr.
Dirrell really needs to win this next fight, because he already has one defeat and another loss would likely finish any hopes for Dirrell to move on into the semifinals of the Super Six tournament.
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