By Harlan Davies: On March 6th the second round of the Super-Six tournament will commence with Andre “The Matrix” Ward locking horns with “King” Arthur. From an initial glance, this bout seems to be an inevitable clash of styles that will produce solely two definitive outcomes.
Andre Dirrell (18 wins 1oss 15 kos) is a talent, no doubt. He possesses all the desirable attributes that a trainer would want in young fighter. Physically, he is a tall ecto-mesomorphic super-middleweight standing at 6’2 with a 75 inch reach allowing him to characteristically adopt an outside style that allows him to box, move, jab and counter. He is supremely-gifted technician with an amateur pedigree coming to conclusion with a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics. He has blurring hand-speed with swift agile movement in the ring which makes a very elusive target; by many he is measured as not only the quickest fighter in the tournament but as one of the quickest super-middleweights of all time. Naturally, with hand-speed comes above average power that may not be show-stopping but still evidently potent.
In Dirrell’s fight with Froch last November he showed the fruits of such speed which made it a very frustrating night for the Nottingham fighter. Froch found it a very difficult to land his bombs throughout the fight with Dirrell’s defence being rarely penetrated but this may where Dirrell’s weakness lies. I was ringside for that fight and it was growingly apparent from the offset that he wanted to box very technically which saw him back-pedalling for the greater part of the 12 rounds. He rarely threw a combination but opting to throw the occasional inquisitive jab, pot shot Froch with counters before slipping and rolling Froch’s own barrage of blows. Carl himself in the post-fight interview commented on Dirrell’s “negativity” which saw Andre be on the wrong end of a split-decision. Maybe the judges had punished him for his lack of aggression. He is a relatively inexperienced fighter who’s only name of note on his record being Froch. There are also question marks which is common with many young, talented fighters over his chin. He was dropped by a counter-right in only his 7th fight against Alfonso Rocha, a tough but below-average fighter and maybe his defensive style is a by-product of this fear of exposing it.
The other fighter that makes up the other half of the equation is Arthur Abraham who is coming off a 12th round knockout of the once formidable task in Jermain Taylor. He is undefeated (31 wins 25 kos), should be supremely confident and will look to emulate his success in March. Going into the tournament people doubted the former IBF middleweight champion’s potential as a super-middleweight against other naturally bigger fighters who surpassed Arthur’s previous opponents in terms of calibre but Arthur helped silence his doubters after opening the tournament with a brilliant KO. Standing at 5’10 Arthur is a stocky and compact 168 pound fighter with an inside style that stalks his opponent with a guard held very high before unleashing deadly combos once the distance had been closed. His hand speed is underrated and he possesses knockout power in each of his fists which is considered the hardest out of the fighters in the tournament. It was proven in the Miranda fight when he broke his jaw that he has a granite chin and innate durability which something that can not be trained into a fighter. The quality of his opposition has been underwhelming by choosing to fight relatively unknowns in Germany which has appropriately raised questions on how he would handle the Kesslers, Frochs, and Wards of the boxing universe.
My prediction? It is a very difficult fight to call with such a Ying-Yang of styles but I predict that Dirrell like Taylor will start off tentatively by moving and keeping Abraham at a distance. Like Taylor Dirrell will look to box Abraham and use his piston-like jab to rack up the points. This course will follow him into the second half of the fight until Abraham’s pressure and power punching will begin to deteriorate Andre’s durability so I can foresee a late stoppage for Arthur. Despite this, Taylor proved in their last fight that a taller fighter with refined boxing skills can deem the shorter fighter’s capabilities ineffective for the whole 12 rounds. I perceive Dirrell as a younger, quicker and fresher version of Jermain Taylor which may see Dirrell pull off an upset if he plants his feet and throws clusters of shots. Then again all it takes is one punch.
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