Steve Albert described the night perfectly when he said it had spirit, emotion and drama. Andre Dirrell boxed beautifully. He kept Abraham off balance, and had a glove in his face, or one digging into his body most of the night. Andre jabbed well both from the orthodox and southpaw stances. He also hooked off of the jab, and drove straight shots to the belly, and used angles to land hooks behind the King's elbows. Abraham complained several times about Dirrell's punches being low, but most of the time Referee Lawrence Cold wasn't buying it. By the end of the fight, Abraham's face clearly showed evidence of that Dirrell's were landing. The King was cut above the right eye, and both cheeks were swollen and bruised.
The disqualification came in the eleventh round as the result of a deliberate right hand punch thrown and landed by the King after Andre Dirrell had slipped to the canvas on one of the advertising logos. In the post-fight interview, the King tried to get viewers to believe Dirrell wasn't really down/, implying the punch was legall. After watching the replay, it was obvious to even his royal highness that that explanation wasn't going to work, so he changed tactics. He then tried to make viewers believe that he didn't know Dirrell was down when he threw the punch! That too seemed like a lame excuse, because Dirrell was literally sitting on the canvas when Abraham intentionally threw the illegal punch. Referee Cole had no choice but to disqualify the undefeated leader of the super six tournament. Consequently, Abraham leaves without any points and a tainted reputation. Ringside announcer Antonio Tarver described the situation correctly when he said Dirrell came back well after his controversial SD loss to Carl Froch by sticking to the game plan for this fight; although, he did have a couple of lapses when he let Abraham trap him on the ropes. However, Tarver explained Dirrell used his hand speed and elusive foot speed to frustrate Abraham, and to move way out front on points. Dirrell also accomplished something no had up to that point, and that was to score a knockdown of the powerful Armenian in the second round. Dirrell may have deserved a second knockdown in a later round when he landed a punch that caused Abraham to fall into the ropes. However, things evened up later, because Abraham landed a clean right hand shot to the jaw of Dirrell, which put him down. Referee Cole chose to waive it off, because he correctly saw where Abraham's left foot got behind Dirrell's right foot, causing Andre to trip.
At one point in the fight when Dirrell was controlling the fight, Referee Cole chose to stop the action and walk Abraham over to a corner where two ringside physicians coudd examine the cut over his right eye. The two doctors seemed to take an unusually long period of time to decide if Abraham should be allowed to continue. Not only that, one of the two physicians was actually treating the cut by applying pressure? Thankfully their actions did not figure into the eventual outcome of the fight.
The illegal right hand punch thrown by Abraham landed squarely to the left side of Dirrell's chin. There was bit of a delayed reaction and grimace by Dirrell. He then collapsed to his left and then on to his back. His eyes were closed and his legs twitched as if he might be going into convulsions. Bedlam resulted, and many people climbed into the ring. For several moments the situation seemd tense, but once Andre sat up, things began to calm down a bit.
Once Andre regained consciousness, and stood up, he seemed terribly distraught. It became apparent that he thought he had been knocked out and therefore lost the fight. After several minutes passed, it seemed that it was finally registering to him that he had won the fight on disqualification.
King Arthur totally missed out on his objective to win over fans in the USA. Not only was he totally outclassed, he disgraced himself in the eyes of many for intentionally throwing a very dangerous illegal punch out of frustration. Things do not bode well for this fighter, who before the bell rang to start tonight's action, was considered one of the favorites to win it all. Now he's been knocked down, soundly outboxed and disqualified. In the process, he has alienated himself to many. He thought he got booed a lot tonight upon entering the ring. Wait until next time he fights in the USA. If Carl Froch gets by Mikkel Kessler, he might remove the King's chances of ever making that happen anyway. Yes, it definitely was a night filled with spirit, emotion and drama.
Source: eastsideboxing.com
In Reply to: Alex4Carmen
ReplyDeleteIt's quite obvious that "Alex4Carmen" is
an uneducated moron who's command of the English
language is equal to "Abraham's" Boxing skills -
"NIL."
Abraham's is a coward! His boxing style (if that's what you could call it) consists of "Hiding his Ugly face," bowing at the mid-section, and covering his "tender belly" whilst he cries "FOUL" to every shot!
He's not a boxer, he's a broken-down punk who should be "disqualified" from the WBC. Hiding
and crying are what he does best! Hopefully
there will be another fight between "Dirrell and
Abraham," and this time, Dirrell won't just knock him on his ass! (like he did in round
number 4,) but he will stomp that coward
into a permanent humiliation!
Patricia
Excellent commentary Paul - An unbiased account of the fight and aftermath. Dirrell should have been evacuated for treatment and not interviewed by Showtime. I think Abraham and Showtime appeared tainted by their actions.
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