By William Mackay: Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) is no longer unbeaten after fouling out of last Saturday night’s bout with Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) in the 2nd part of the Super Six tournament in Detroit, Michigan. With Dirrell having built up a commanding lead going into the 11th round, Abraham, frustrated because of his inability to catch up to the speedy Dirrell, opted to take the easy way out by landing a crushing right hand as Dirrell was helpless on the canvas after slipping on water in Abraham’s corner.
The right hand shot that Abraham landed ended up knocking Dirrell out. And referee Lawrence Cole in turn knocked Abraham out of the fight by disqualifying him, and rightly so. The blow was blatantly illegal and entirely uncalled for given the circumstances. Abraham was totally desperate at the time of the disqualication because he had frittered away the first 10 rounds of the bout, hiding behind his clam-shell defense, throwing few punches and getting badly out-boxed by Dirrell.
By the 10th round had arrived, Abraham was like a school child who had procrastinated in writing a paper and was in a desperate hurry to throw it together at the last second. But like a lot of people who procrastinate to the last second, Abraham found himself desperate, maybe too desperate, and looking to get an extra edge. In this case, he couldn’t use crib notes or plagiarize material but instead he did the very next best thing by trying to get away with landing a shot while Dirrell was down.
Maybe this is something that would be ignored had this fight taken place in Germany, but it didn’t fly in the U.S., as Abraham was quickly disqualified. In losing the fight, Abraham takes a big hit in terms of his so called invincibility. Abraham was seen by some boxing people as a potential winner of the Super Six. Not anymore. He looked one-dimensional and very limited in the fight.
And Abraham’s work rate was pitiful for a top tier fighter. He waited way too long to get started and when he did finally start throwing punches, Abraham was so far behind in the fight that he had to score a knockout. Who knows? Maybe Abraham could have stopped Dirrell in the 11th or 12th if he had kept his composure and not resorted to cheating. We don’t know because Abraham totally blew it by blasting Dirrell while he was down on the canvas.
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