By Jim Dower: Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole believes that former International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s) should be suspended for at least six months for hitting Andre Dirrell when he was down on the canvas last Saturday night at the Joe Louis Arena, in Detroit, Michigan. Dirrell, 26, was ahead in the fight in the 11th round, but slipped and fell down. Abraham, who chasing Dirrell around the ring at the time and having problems catching up to him, stood over Dirrell and leveled him with a tremendous right hand to the side of the head.

The punch was totally uncalled for, because Dirrell was clearly on the ground and essentially helpless. It looked by all accounts that Abraham had lost his cool completely and saw an opportunity to land a free shot. Iole says “Arthur Abraham should be suspended for a minimum of six months for the heinous foul he committed on Andre Dirrell.” It’s highly doubtful that Abraham will end up facing any kind of suspension for this blow, even though it’s the kind of punch that perhaps should lead to a suspension.

Abraham says that he couldn’t see that Dirrell was down on the canvas because he had blood in his right eye because of his big cut. It would be hard to prove that Abraham deliberately hit Dirrell while he was down. Abraham was exhausted, cut on one of his eyes, and having problems catching up to the speedy Dirrell. Another thing that is in Abraham’s favor is that Dirrell often ducked low to avoid punches during the fight, and sometimes even got as low as waist level to avoid shots.

Abraham as tired as he was might not have been able to see that Dirrell was down or whether he was ducking low like he’d been doing from time to time in the fight. I don’t think Abraham should be suspended for this. He might not have really known that Dirrell was down. Also, if Abraham gets suspended, it will really hurt the Super Six tournament in a big way.

With a six month suspension, it throw off the tournament even more than it already is, and we could be looking at the tournament lasting until last 2011 before it finally is completed. If Abraham pulls out of the Super Six tournament entirely, the tournament will lose a lot of the luster that it currently has. Finding a replacement for Abraham wouldn’t be an easy thing.

Whoever they find, it won’t be anyone as good as Abraham unless IBF super middleweight Lucian Bute was to suddenly show interest in taking part in the tournament. I doubt he would want to. It’s best to let the disqualification be punishment enough for Abraham. You can’t argue too much with the referee’s call on that. The referee might have ignored it and just taken a point away from Abraham had Dirrell not been knocked out from the shot. I think that was pretty crucial in the referee disqualifying Abraham.