As the controversial ending of Andre Dirrell's disqualification victory over Arthur Abraham opens Wednesday night's 10 p.m. fifth episode of Showtime's Fight Camp 360: Inside The Super Six Super Middleweight (168 pounds) World Boxing Classic, newly inserted competitor, Allan Green, reacts with astonishment from ringside.
A still-dazed Dirrell, meanwhile, rises on unsteady legs after having slipped, and, been subsequently, hit while he was on the canvas by Abraham's vicious, downward-swooping right hand.
"All that I could think about was, 'Everybody get away from me.' I couldn't even breathe," said Dirrell, who believed that he had lost by a knockout. "I got dropped. That was all that was in my mind was that I got dropped."
By now, however, many of you know that Dirrell's assertion is not completely accurate. Although Dirrell and his handlers contend that the fighter was, indeed, KO'd, the ruling was that the Armenian-born Abraham had done so illegally.
Abraham lost the first bout of his professional career by disqualification at 1:13 of the 11th round when he nailed Dirrell in a neutral corner -- this after the Dirrell had slipped to the canvas on a slick advertisement label.An overwhelming underdog entering the fight, Dirrell had boxed his way to an insurmountable lead on the judges' cards, having floored Abraham for the first time in the latter's career in the fourth round.
In addition, Dirrell had cut Abraham with a slicing, seventh-round left hook. In defeat, Abraham fell to 31-1, with 25 knockouts, failing to earn his ninth knockout in his past 10 fights and his third straight stoppage victory against Dirrell, who rose to 19-1, with 13 knockouts as part of the classic's group stage No. 2.
A former Olympic bronze medalist from Flint, Mich., who, nevertheless, thrilled his boisterous, partisan fans at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena against Abraham, Dirrell, in the piece, indicates that some of the fear and intimidation he felt concerning Abraham was lost during the pre-fight weigh-in.
"You always size up the other fighter when they take their shirt off and I take of mine. You look at these guys and you're like, 'Man, he's got this many knockouts,'" said Dirrell, who displayed more muscular features -- particularly around the adbomen -- than Abraham.
"You almost get so lost in thinking about it that you think that they're machines and you think that they're just built for this," said Dirrell. "But when you meet up with them, face-to-face, you see that he's just another man."
That notion actually bore itself out during the bout, which helped Dirrell to rebound from October's split-decision loss to WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch (26-0, 25 KOs), of Nottingham, England, who will defend his crown against Denmark's Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KOs) on April 24.
Meanwhile, on June 19, Green (29-1, 20 KOs), will go after the WBA title of Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KOs), who dethroned Kessler for that belt.
Lying in his hotel room the night before their bout, Dirrell lets on that he's "Still nervous."
"Being by myself, I get nervous. Confident as ever, but neverous," said Dirrell, peering at the weigh-in's stare-down photo of himself and Abraham, which he had programmed into his celular phone.
"I've got him right here," said Dirrell, holding the shot up to the Showtime cameras. "I've already got him focused in. 'I'm coming Abraham.' I've got him on my mind. It's just you and me buddy."
During the fighter meetings with Showtime officials earlier in the day, Abraham gave an intriguing assessment of Dirrell's performance against Froch.
"Dirrell did nothing. He'd run, run, run. So he does not win," said Abraham, swirling his right pointer finger around in circles for emphasis. "I want to only win. I'd like a KO in the first round. I want to finish it very quickly."
Of course, that is not what occurred.
"I'm feeling quite confident for our fight tonight," said Wilfried Sauerland, Abraham's promoter. "But you know with boxing, everything can happen."
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
No comments:
Post a Comment