By Craig Finch: Andre Dirrell seems to of taken to the top level of the Super Middle weight division like a duck to water.

I always think it is easy to look world class at a lower level if you have some skills and the question really is how good are you going to look when you step up and face the top 10 of the division, the contenders and the champions.

Well so far his boxing style and his boxing skills have been very impressive. I like to score my own card of a fight and in Dirrells Super 6 debut against England’s Carl Froch I had Andre as a winner. I also had him winning by a near shut out against Artur Abraham until the unsavoury scenes in the 11th round which ended with Abraham being disqualified for a punch while Dirrell was down.

But in both these fights I have seen something lacking in the American that is vital to any boxer, with ambition, Heart. Dirrell was “Schooling” Froch for a fair majority of the fight but at some point in the 7th round Dirrell changed the way he fought, He didn’t just go on to the defensive he ran from Froch and clinched at any given opportunity. It looked like he had been spooked by something Froch was doing and was scared to carry on even though he was comfortably in control. This is what caused him to lose this fight, not on my card but considering he was fighting in somebody else’s back yard and in front of somebody else’s fans you have to keep going and show some heart and pride to be able to grit your teeth and battle away, and on that occasion, to me, he didn’t.

I hoped Dirrell would take that as valuable experience to take into what would be seen as a similar type of opponent in Artur Abraham and for 9 rounds it looked that way, Andre looked even better than he did against Froch and I was very impressed. In the 10th Abraham knew he had to throw everything he had left at Dirrell and he tried. Dirrell got tagged a couple of times and Abraham smelt blood and kept pushing, I don’t think Dirrell looked in terrible danger but once again he looked a little spooked. In the 11th it all happened. Abraham did what he did, it wasn’t a split moment decision and it was quite crude. But this did not hurt Dirrell anywhere near as much as he made out, there was a clear case of play acting that didn’t seem to fool many people in the world, but leaving the referee no option but to end the fight there and then. (only my opinion of course)

For me Andre Dirrell blew the chance to shut a lot of people up that night, he won the fight but in a way most boxers would not choose to. And he wasn’t even really hurt. He took the easy way out instead of gritting his teeth and proving he’s a warrior. It just seems to be another example that he could be lacking a bit of heart.

No matter how good your abilities are you will find yourself in a gruelling fight, even the most skilled boxer on the planet Floyd Mayweather Jr has been there, but you can’t keep running and acting, you have to show a little heart or it is only a matter of time before you are going to be found out. You really need the heart and hunger in a fight and in training, it is a brutal regime to put your body through and eventually if you do not have that it will catch up to you and you will not become what your talent could make you. And I fear this could happen to Andre.