By Scott Gilfoid: Make no mistake, Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) has almost everything going against him in his stage 2 Super Six tournament fight against Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s). Not only is Arthur over-matched in terms of boxing skills and hand speed, but he’s also fighting in Dirrell’s home state of Michigan. The two fighters will be meeting at the famous Joe Louis Arena, in Detroit, Michigan on March 27th. The arena is likely to be jam packed with Dirrell fans on the 27th, and Abraham, who has only fought out of Germany a couple of times in his career, will have to deal with all the pro-Dirrell fans screaming for Abraham’s blood.

But no matter where this fight would take place, Abraham would be in deep trouble because of the talent of the American Dirrell. He’s just a better fighter with many more defensive and offensive tools in his arsenal than the slow handed and slow footed Abraham. However, it’s possible that if Abraham fights his heart out and gets lucky, he might be able to defeat Dirrell. But for that to happen, Abraham is going to have to fight the perfect fight and not make any mistakes.

Abraham is also going to have to have a lot of luck going for him, because even with Abraham fighting the perfect fight, he’s still badly over his head in this fight. The problem that Abraham is going to have to deal with his total lack of hand speed, and the crude manner in which he attacks his opponents. Abraham can’t go fighting like a primitive that just walked into the gym without any knowledge whatsoever about boxing.

Abraham is going to have to learn to straight out his punches, stop throwing wide hooks and most of all stop madly charging his opponents like a little bull. He’s just looks awful when he does that. And some of the time, Abraham raises his knee as if he’s going to throw a knee. I’ve seen him warned in fights about that, and never could figure out why he does that. It looks very strange and makes him seem uncoordinated. So for Abraham to have a half way decent chance of winning, he has to stop fighting like an amateur and star putting some form together.

I’m telling you, if Abraham tries rushing Dirrell and throwing those ugly wide hooks of his, Dirrell will eat him for dinner and pick him apart. Abraham needs to stop throwing hooks, and start straightening his punches out. Who knows? Abraham might even pick up some badly needed hand speed if he straightens his punches out. The next thing I would work on for Abraham is his tendency to be a laze in his fights.

Abraham has got to stop just covering up all the time and taking breathers and start fighting. Abraham only throws punches during the last seconds of every round, and basically attempts to steal the rounds with his last second flurries. I’ve seen countless fights where Abraham has done zero for two minutes and forty seconds of the round, but then in the last 20 seconds he rushes his opponents and throws eight to ten punches, most of which badly miss.

And then as it turns out, the judges end up giving Abraham these rounds despite him doing nothing until the last seconds, and missing most of his shots when he finally does start to throw. That doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in the judges in Germany, which is where Abraham fights most of the time. That kind of round stealing gimmicks won’t work here in the U.S. Abraham is going to have to actually work hard to win rounds, and if he does nothing for the entire round and try to steal it at the end, he’s just going to come up short.