By Scott Gilfoid: American Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) will be facing former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) on March 6th in their stage 2 bout of the Super Six tournament at the Agua Caliente Casino, Rancho Mirage, California. Abraham thus far is leading the Super Six tournament due to his 12th round knockout over Jermain Taylor on October 17th last year. Abraham will now be facing what could be the hardest puncher and the fastest fighter in the Super Six tournament in the 27-year-old Dirrell.

Abraham has had things mostly easy during his pro career, facing mediocre talent in the middleweight division, but on March 6th, Abraham is finally going to be facing his first talented opponent when he meets up against Dirrell. Originally, I saw this fight ending with Dirrell winning a lopsided 12 round decision over Abraham in a fight in which Dirrell would win all 12 rounds with ease. Now, however, after examining the last 15 fights of Abraham closely, I believe that Dirrell is going to win by stoppage, possibly by the 9th or 10th rounds.

I’m aware of Abraham’s reputation of having a great chin, excellent defense and good power, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to stand up to the heavy artillery thrown by Dirrell in this fight. I think Dirrell has got too much speed and power for the painfully slow Abraham to deal with. If this was a fight with Abraham facing the typical middleweight fodder he’s been served up with during his pro career, I wouldn’t hesitate to predict another knockout win for the slow punching Abraham.

However, Abe is finally facing someone good after all these years and I think he’s going to be in way over his head in this fight. I honestly don’t know how Abraham has been able to stay unbeaten all these years. He throws these dreadful looking wide punches which leave him open to being countered, and he has bad habit of charging after his opponents on the run throwing shots in every direction.

Accuracy isn’t his strong suit and neither is style. The contrast between the crude looking Abraham and the highly skilled Dirrell is frankly shocking. Dirrell is like a smooth Porsche, running like a perfect piece of machinery. Abraham, though, is more like an older Chevy that’s fast, but blowing black smoke and not running on all the cylinders.

Dirrell is going to not only dominate every second of this Super Six fight against Abraham, but he’s going to blast him out with a flurry of shots and win the fight with ease. When Abraham comes charging in with his usual wreck less style of attacking his opponent, Dirrell is going to greet him with a straight left right down the pipe and stop him dead in his tracks. It’s going to be like a hunter aiming down on a wild elephant.

Dirrell is going to drop Abraham with a shot right between the eyes, and send him flying backwards from the impact. To his credit, I think Abraham will get up after being knocked down and bravely continue to fight. But once Dirrell smells blood, he’s going to go for the kill and look to finish off Abraham with a flurry of shots that Abraham will likely never see because of the speed of the shots.

Abraham will feel them, though, as the shots will pierce his supposedly airtight clamshell defense, landing with brute force to Abraham’s face, jaw and nose area, causing Abraham to go down for the 2nd and final time. By the 10th round, Abraham will be no more. Dirrell will have picked up his first win in the Super Six tournament and will be looking to move forward to the next round of the tournament.