By Jim Dower: Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) despite his glorious victory over previously unbeaten Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) last Saturday night in their Super Six tournament bout, is far from happy due to ending of the fight. Dirrell, with a commanding lead going into the 11th round, was struck on the side of the head by Abraham after Dirrell had slipped on the canvas. The blow from Abraham badly hurt Dirrell, and prevented him from continuing the fight. Abraham was immediately disqualified by referee Lawrence Cole for throwing the illegal punch.

On Dirrell’s twitter page, he has this to say about Abraham: “He stole my biggest victory. Because of the ending, it’s going to be hard for me to watch that fight, he stole my time to shine. I did give him the business the whole fight though lol. All in all, I’m thankful for the victory, god is good. And for those of you who think I was acting, I’d like to see you try and take a shot while you’re down by the hardest hitting man at 168.”

Instead of Dirrell getting the chance to finish the fight by boxing smartly in the 11th and 12th rounds, many people are wondering whether Abraham could have finished Dirrell off had he not hit Dirrell while he was on the canvas. At the time the fight was stopped, Abraham looked to be the stronger fighter and was really coming on.

Dirrell was moving a lot trying to stay away from Abraham, but he was getting hit occasionally with some big shots. In the 10th round, Abraham had knocked Dirrell to the canvas after hitting him with a good right hand. The referee missed the call and ruled that Dirrell had tripped over Abraham’s foot. After the missed knockdown, Dirrell looked worried, and moved constantly.

Abraham seemed to have a no lease on life as he for the first time in the fight really starting putting in a concerted effort to take Dirrell out. In the 11th round, Abraham continued to go after Dirrell, landing some big shots, but still missing with a lot of his punches.

The end came when Dirrell slipped on the wet canvas in Abraham’s corner. Instead of backing off and letting Dirrell get back to his feet, Abraham, who looked completely desperate at this point, hit Dirrell with a big shot to the head. This resulted in Dirrell falling over in a delayed response. After laying flat on his back for at least a minute, Dirrell, with help from a doctor, was able to get back to his feet.

The ending of the fight was less than pleasing if you were a Dirrell fan, because he didn’t a get a chance to prove that he could make it through the last two rounds. And some people question whether Dirrell was faking because of the delayed reaction to the punch. Abraham certainly believed Dirrell was acting, and pointed it out, saying “He’s a good actor.”

It has to be hard for Dirrell to feel good about this victory because it is tainted because of how it ended. On one hand, Dirrell looked so good for the first nine rounds as he out-boxed Abraham and made him look slow and limited. But on the other hand, Abraham was coming on at the end of the fight, appeared to have hurt Dirrell, looked like the stronger fighter and ended the fight when he did finally connect with a hard shot. It’s too bad that Abraham chose to hit Dirrell while he was down rather than staying patient until he finally did catch up to him.