In the first round of Showtime's super middleweight tournament, many view the Carl Froch vs. Andre D

Boxing Scene Mark Vester31st August, 2009

In the first round of Showtime's super middleweight tournament, many view the Carl Froch vs. Andre Dirrell clash as the closest fight on paper. Froch defends his WBC title against Dirrell on October 17 in Nottingham. Froch made a big splash in his last fight by coming from behind to stop Jermain Taylor in the twelfth and final round. Dirrell says Froch is a strong fighter and throws a lot of punches but he leaves himself wide open to counters and doesn't have much of a plan in the ring. Dirrell will use his speed to expose those openings.

"He is a strong 12-round fighter. He gets in there and he ain't about no game man. He's a tough fighter. The upside for me, he keeps his hands down and his chin straight up. He punches from everywhere. He even throws punches from his sides. He's just so wide open and a guy with my speed and my talent can capitalize off of that," Dirrell said to fighthype.com .

When sizing up all of the six super middleweights in the tournament, Dirrell has the least amount of experience. He puts a lot of faith in his hand speed and boxing ability to overcome his inexperience.

"I think it will play a big role. No doubt about it. I have tremendous hand speed, but I have a lot of flaws as well and I've been working on those flaws. My hand speed has gotten me through a lot and I believe it's going to get me through this whole tournament. It's hard to deal with hand speed, especially when you have a disciplined fighter in front of you. That will play a big role in me getting to the finals," Dirrell said.

"Like I said, it's hard for fighters to deal with speed, especially brawlers. If I take that and work hard, I feel I can make this easy on myself. I just gotta be smart with everything. I have to keep my hands up and use my natural ability and my hand speed. If I can put all of that together with the fundamentals of boxing and utilizing the ring, I would feel unstoppable. I believe it will take me a long way in this tournament."