By Scott Gilfoid: In the latest episode of Showtime’s Fight Camp 360, it covered the March 27th fight between Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) and Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KO’s0, showing the build up to the fight, the fight itself, and the anger and confusion that resulted from Abraham having tagged Dirrell after the talented American had slipped on the wet canvas in the 11th. The punch from Abraham knocked Dirrell senseless for a brief amount of time, and resulted in Abraham being disqualified for the foul.

Dirrell, in the meantime, was confused and angry after he regained his senses, and was ready to continue fighting. Unfortunately, it was all over, he had won the fight and was subsequently taken first to his dressing room and then to a nearby hospital to have tests done to examine his condition. Before the foul, Dirrell had boxed magnificently, dominating the first nine rounds of the fight with his amazing boxing skills and hand speed.

Dirrell had some problems in the 10th, as Abraham landed a hard right hand that sent Dirrell down on his backside. The knockdown was correctly ruled a trip, because Dirrell had clearly tripped over Abraham’s left hook just as he was getting hit. Abraham then rushed after Dirrell, thinking he had him hurt, and threw a flurry of punches, missing most of them but landing three hard shots. Abraham clearly won that round, but in the 11th, Abraham wasn’t really connecting with his shots despite chasing after Dirrell and trying to unload.

When Dirrell slipped on the canvas and wound up on one knee, Abraham made a huge mistake by hitting Dirrell with a hard right hand. Abraham needed to stop, look and realize that Dirrell was down, he wasn’t moving his heat, he didn’t have his guard up and he clearly was not in the position to defend himself against any punches.

Dirrell, speaking about the disqualification, said “All that I could think about was, ‘everybody get away from me.’ I couldn’t even breathe.” It wasn’t the best way to win a fight, but Dirrell will take the win. It’s just too bad that Abraham didn’t stay composed and let Dirrell get up before continuing his attack. Abraham undermined himself by not thinking before throwing his shots. He now has a loss to show for his mistake.

In his next fight against Carl Froch, Abraham will have to keep it together because the last thing he needs is to ruin it for himself by fouling Froch and end up getting disqualified for a second time. As it is, Abraham took a royal beating from Dirrell. After the fight, Abraham’s face was badly bruised around both eyes with his right eye cut from one of Dirrell’s huge left hand shots.

The episode five showed fellow American Super Six tourney contestants Allan Green and Andre Ward in the audience at the Abraham-Dirrell fight, shouting encouragement for Dirrell. I really liked that. It was nice to see fighters supporting each other rather than looking at Dirrell as a potential opponent to fear. Dirrell will be facing Ward next in the stage 3 part of the Super Six tournament. Green is facing Ward in June in their stage 2 bout. This will be the first fight for Green in the Super Six tournament, as he’s replacing Jermain Taylor, who had to pull out after experiencing a bad knockout against Abraham last October.

Dirrell was very open and up front in his comments in the episode. That’s what I liked about him. The guy was real and not a phony. Dirrell said “You always size up the other fighter when they their shirt off and I take off mine. You look at these guys and you’re like, ‘Man, he’s got this many knockouts. You almost get so lost in thinking about it that you think that they’re machines and you think that they’re just built for this. But when you meet up with them, face to face, you see that he’s just another man.”

Dirrell proved that he’s more than match for both of his Super Six tournament opponents, boxing circles around Carl Froch last October and losing a controversial decision in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, England. And then facing Arthur Abraham, and dominating him until being struck while on one knee on the canvas.

Dirrell, the night before the Abraham fight, said “Being by myself, I get nervous – Confident as ever, but nervous.” Dirrell then pulled out his cell phone, which had a photo of him and Abraham standing together, and said “I’ve got him right here. I’ve already got him focused in. ‘I’m coming, Abraham.’ I’ve got him on my mind. It’s just you and me, buddy.”