By Jim Dower: Sauerland, the promotional company for Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s), is looking to get his recent 11th round disqualification loss to Andre Dirrell overturned and changed to a ‘no decision,’ according to German news agency Bild.de. They’re unhappy that American referee Lawrence Cole, who worked the Abraham-Dirrell stage 2 Super Six tournament bout on March 27th, failed to shout “Break” after Dirrell has accidently slipped on the canvas in the 11th round.

Abraham, not hearing any stop in the action, landed a right hand to the side of Dirrell’s head while he was on one knee, knocking Dirrell out and causing referee Lawrence Cole to disqualify Abraham. After the fight, Abraham complained that he didn’t notice that Dirrell was down when he hit him, and called him a “good actor.”

Sauerland has protested the loss to the WBC, and want the loss to be taken off. Besides the punch that led to the disqualification, Abraham’s management is also unhappy that Cole didn’t rule that Dirrell was knocked down in the 10th round after getting hit with a hard right hand that put Dirrell on his backside. Cole ruled that he had tripped over Abraham’s foot.

Additionally, Abraham’s German management felt that Dirrell should have had points taken off for a series of low blows, which Dirrell was allowed to land without being penalized by Cole. But their main gripe is that Cole failed to shout “Break” after Dirrell slipped to the canvas in the 11th. Without the referee stopping the action, Abraham continued to fight and blasted Dirrell with a hard right to the head that badly hurt him.

Earlier in the fight, Dirrell had hit Abraham with a low blow, and Dirrell continued to go after Abraham, even though the German looked to be in visible pain and bending forward. Dirrell looked briefly at the referee and when he saw that he wasn’t going to stop the action, Dirrell went after Abraham and missed with a big left hook. The difference between what Dirrell did and what Abraham did was that Dirrell looked at the referee before proceeding to continue his attack, whereas Abraham didn’t hesitate after Dirrell slipped on the canvas, bending down and hitting Dirrell with a hard right hand to the head.

It’s unclear whether the WBC will overturn the decision. It’s hard to imagine they will, because there wasn’t much time for the referee Cole to shout for a stop in the action because he appeared to be partially shielded from what was taking place by Abraham’s back and was far away from the action. It’s possible the WBC will overturn it, but I doubt it. Dirrell appeared to be clearly down and Abraham had to actually bend over to hit him. Even if Abraham didn’t receive any instructions from the referee, it should seem pretty obvious that Dirrell was down and defenseless at the time he was hit by Abraham.