By Scott Gilfoid: The talented Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO’s) deserves a heck of lost of credit and respect for producing the blueprint on how to beat knockout artist Arthur Abraham (31-2, 25 KO’s) when Dirrell totally schooled Abraham last March in his 11th round disqualification victory in Detroit. Dirrell whipped Abraham every which way you can beat a fighter. It was one of those clinic beatings. I think the loss messed Abraham mentally, because he looked like a shell of himself when he stepped into the ring with Carl Froch (27-1, 20 KO’s) in their stage 3 Super Six tournament fight last Saturday night at the Hartwall Arena, in Helsinki, Finland.

Froch did exactly what Dirrell did to beat Abraham, albeit a lot slower with less skills involved. Froch fought like Dirrell but in very slow motion in beating Abraham. Dirrell showed that to beat Abraham all you have to do is stick and move, and duck when he goes to throw his big power shots. The only thing that Froch has to worry about from the short 5’10” Abraham was to avoid getting hit when the two fighters came in close. Froch did a terrible job of avoiding getting hit when they were in close, but his chin was good enough to take Abraham’s short power shots and an occasional elbow.

After this win, I have even more respect for Dirrell, because he schooled both Froch and Abraham and did it with ease. Dirrell lost the fight to Froch fighting in Froch’s home city of Nottingham, in what appeared to be a home town decision. I had Dirrell winning eight rounds to three with one even. Froch fouled like mad from the 5th until the 11th round, and the referee just stood and watched. Incredibly, the fighter that ended up losing points was Dirrell, when he was docked a point in the 10th for holding a few times. He hardly holding, but the referee decided to call it anyway. Dirrell responded by immediately staggering Froch twice.

Froch should thank Dirrell for producing the Abraham blueprint for his win. You got to give Dirrell huge respect for what he accomplished in putting together that blueprint. It was boxing at it’s finest.