By Scott Gilfoid: Super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) fights former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) on March 6th in the stage 2 Super Six tournament fight at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. Gullible boxing fans have become enamored with Abraham after seeing him knockout Jermain Taylor in the 12th round in their Super Six fight last October 17th.

Fans that had never even seen Abraham fight before that time now are picking him to win the Super Six tournament. It’s shocking how impressionable boxing fans are from just one little knockout win. Dirrell, I hate to say, is going to dribble all over their parade on March 6th when he not only beats Abraham, but does it so impressively that boxing fans will wonder what they ever saw on Abraham.

Right now, Abraham is leading the Super Six tournament in scoring based on his knockout win. However, Dirrell is going to bring him back down to earth by beating him next month. Thus far, Dirrell has zero points by virtue of his 12 round decision loss to Carl Froch last October.

For me, I don’t count that as a loss, because Dirrell dominated the entire fight with his speed, counter punching and incredible boxing moves. The fight was held on Nottingham, England, the home of Froch. Personally, it was the worst decision I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I thought it was just bad scoring. But never the less, Dirrell is moving forward and will pick up points by beating Abraham next month.

This fight matches a primitive fighter in the 29-year-old Abraham, who has zero hand speed, poor stamina and a habit of fighting only 20 to 30 seconds of every round. Abraham holds onto his punches stingy miser, rarely punching until the closing moments of the round.

To beat Abraham is simple. All Dirrell has to do is use his brilliant hand speed to pound Abraham’s face for 2/3s of the round, and then move away from him during the last 1/3 of the round when Abraham comes alive. It’s that simple. Abraham generally charges forward like a mad bull when he attacks, throwing shots in all directions, missing most of his shots. The judges seem to eat this kind of thing up in his native Germany.

Dirrell, 6’2”, will have a big size advantage in this fight against the 5’10” Abraham. Arthur hasn’t faced a fighter as tall as Dirrell in his career or anyone near as fast. The speed, the size and the reach will give Abraham huge headaches as struggles to land anything at all in this fight. Dirrell showed movements that other fighters could only dream about in his bout against Froch, making him miss over and over again repeatedly.

Dirrell will do the same thing with Abraham, and maybe even worse. Froch was frantic in trying to land his punches after being dominated in the first four rounds by Dirrell, and began to chase Dirrell starting in the 5th. Abraham likes to run at his opponents, but he won’t be able to cut Dirrell down, because of Andre’s clever lateral movement.

Dirrell can change directions on a dime and throw huge counter shots at the same time. Once he has Abraham chasing him, Dirrell will start feeding him with straight left hands to the head and start busting him up. Abraham has a good chin, but I think Dirrell could possibly stop him late in the fight if Abraham starts taking too many chances like Froch did against Dirrell.