Messy win in Motown

Sky Sports Wayne McCullough30th March, 2010

Last weekend the Super Six middleweight tournament continued with Andre Dirrell fighting Arthur Abraham at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. In the first stage of the tournament Dirrell lost a close split decision to Britain's Carl Froch, while Abraham KO'd Jermain Taylor with just seconds left in the final round.

The 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, Dirrell, had the home advantage this time after fighting Froch overseas, but the Abraham camp protested to the assigned judges who were all from Michigan. They claimed Abraham would have to take it out of the judge's hands and win by KO as he wouldn't be able to claim victory on points if the fight was close. So given the uproar, the judges were eventually reassigned with only one from Michigan remaining.

Going into this fight, Abraham was the leader in the tournament. He is typically a slow starter and keeps his hands up high, walking straight in and trying to look for the one big punch. It had worked for him so far in 25 of his 31 wins, but on this occasion it didn't go exactly as planned.

Dirrell moved and boxed, giving angles and landing impressive combinations to the body and head of Abraham. The southpaw fought an almost perfect fight for the first 10 rounds and had a lot better gameplan than in his fight with Froch.

Abraham didn't look like himself from the opening bell and Dirrell was throwing and landing punches to his opponent's head. In the fourth, Dirrell landed a solid left hand to an off balance Abraham, sending him to the canvas for the first time in his career. Despite this though, he got up quickly and didn't seem to be hurt.

Unconscious

A bad cut over Abraham's right eyebrow in the seventh round (that looked as though it was caused by a headbutt) left him with blood running down his face.

Everything was going wrong for the transplanted Armenian, who now fights out of Germany. Then in the 10th it looked like Abraham might get back in the fight when he landed a straight right that dropped Dirrell, but the referee Lawrence Cole said it wasn't a knockdown when it clearly was.

Heading into the 11th round, Dirrell was exhausted. Abraham threw a punch that grazed Andre, he slipped to the canvas and while his knees were down Abraham landed a right hook to the head. It didn't look like a big shot but it seemed to have a delayed reaction on Dirrell and he fell over. He looked unconscious and the referee had no choice but to call a halt to the fight.

Dirrell was awarded a win by disqualification, even though he was clearly ahead on all three cards at the time of the stoppage. But what effect will this have on his future fighting career? Following the fight he said he got knocked out but he didn't know what had happened. He was taken to the hospital for tests.

If Dirrell boxes like this in future fights he could win the entire tournament because he was sharp and accurate, but he could improve on his stamina. He badly needed a victory to stay in the Super Six running and despite the fact that he won under unusual circumstances, a win is a win.

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