By William Mackay: Up until Saturday night, Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) has always seemed like a nice guy with a gentile disposition. However, last Saturday night, boxing fans got to see another side of Abraham when he hit American Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KOs) with a tremendous right hand while Dirrell was down on the canvas after slipping. Dirrell was badly hurt after getting hammered by Abraham and needed to be taken to the hospital after the incident, which briefly had Dirrell flat on his back, both eyes closed and legs going throw spasms.

Abraham was disqualified for the punch by referee Lawrence Cole. But instead of admitting wrong doing for punching Dirrell while he was down on the canvas, an angry looking Abraham said to Showtime interviewer Jim Gray, “He’s [Dirrell] a good actor.” Abraham seemed unwilling to admit what he did was wrong. It seemed shocking to see a fighter who could show no remorse after having clearly done an illegal act by hitting Dirrell while he was down. Later, Abraham’s promoter Wilified Sauerland said that Dirrell “deserved an Oscar.”

What seems really alarming is that Abraham couldn’t admit wrong in what he did. Never mind if he thinks that Dirrell was acting, he still should have at least admitted what he did was wrong in hitting Dirrell while he was helpless on the canvas. Instead of blaming Dirrell for what he saw as an acting job, Abraham should have been gracious enough to say what he did was wrong. By not doing that and coming across an unremorseful while being interviewed after the fight, it made Abraham look as if he didn’t see what he did was wrong.

Dirrell was taken to a nearby hospital after the fight and had a brain scan conducted to see if there was any sign of a brain bleed. Thankfully for Dirrell, nothing serious was found during the tests. The question now is whether Dirrell will feel the lingering effects from this knockout in his next Super Six fight against Andre Ward later on in 2010. Ward isn’t a huge puncher like Abraham, but he does hit hard enough to potentially create problems for Dirrell, especially if he’s still feeling the effects from his knockout to Abraham.

Abraham’s promotional team Sauerland plan on protesting the outcome and will be looking for an immediate rematch. The only thing they have is the believe that they think Dirrell was acting when he was apparently knocked out. However, it’s going to be tough to get anyone to side with their opinion because there’s really no way of proving that Dirrell was acting short of him coming out and making a confession. That won’t happen and it appears that Sauerland will be wasting their time with this appeal.

As for Abraham, his next Super Six fight will be against the hard-hitting Carl Froch. That should be one of the best fights of the entire tournament. Two knockout artists with steel chins going at it like a couple of rams. Froch, however, first has to get by Mikkel Kessler on April 24th. Once that fight is out of the way, he’ll be meeting up with Abraham with what should be an exciting fight.