Should we forget about Andre Dirrell?

[Prince_Pugilist]

I first saw Dirrel years ago against Froch and was very impressed. Froch squeaked by with a win in a fight which could have gone either way. After that he was having a career best performance against one of the S6 favourites when bang! With a little bit of theatrics he lost out on what could have been his greatest night. Now Dirrell is irrelevant, unless he fights 3-4 times this year against top ranked SMWs and puts forward a statement. Maybe fights AA again, or chases Bute?

[110110110]

I really think that Andre was scared ****less of AA, and when after AA started to go headhunting from the 7 round he got more and more scared and the knockdown was the final nail in the coffin.

,That type of fear ruins a boxer, its like a phobia

[Targaryen]

Said it years ago that he was naturally the best boxer at 168. What a shame how his career or lack thereof has turned out.

Whatever his focus is in life, it's definitely not with boxing. Such a waste of talent, and real talent too.

[boliodogs]

I never liked him. He has fast hands and good skills but he is not tough or game. He is a front runner and he doesn't like it when things get rough. He showed me that in his fight with Froch and again with Abraham.

[-PANDA-]

I really think that Andre was scared ****less of AA, and when after AA started to go headhunting from the 7 round he got more and more scared and the knockdown was the final nail in the coffin.

,That type of fear ruins a boxer, its like a phobia

its really weird because he looked hella nervous stepping into the ring and he knocked abraham down twice (for the first time) which no one else has been able to do since and then he just took his foot off the peddle and let abraham do his thing

what i wouldn't give for a peek into dirrell's mind that day

[mathed]

its really weird because he looked hella nervous stepping into the ring and he knocked abraham down twice (for the first time) which no one else has been able to do since and then he just took his foot off the peddle and let abraham do his thing

what i wouldn't give for a peek into dirrell's mind that day

Probably flashbacks of his meeting with Showtime and his promoter saying "Don't worry Andre, we need you man, we aren't going to let anything bad happen to you. We just need you to show up and stick and move and it's an easy payday" He then thinks to himself: "They said it was gonna be easy, man, they lied or something because this guy is punching back - that wasn't part of the deal."

[#1Assassin]

I really think that Andre was scared ****less of AA, and when after AA started to go headhunting from the 7 round he got more and more scared and the knockdown was the final nail in the coffin.

,That type of fear ruins a boxer, its like a phobia

he was nervous going in for sure. every fighter gets nervous before a fight but andre really looked intimidated. that said dirrell wasnt scared at all as the fight progressed, its only before the fight when your insincts tell you not to fight. once the fight starts your instincts tell you to defend yourself. there is no fear once the first punch lands. several rounds into the fight the jitters are gone for sure.

in fact i never seen dirrell more confident than in the abraham fight. i was watching it on danish tv and they showed different camera angles than the showtime broadcast. watch it again and listen to the sudden roar from the crowd as the doctors are looking at abrahams cut. thats in reaction to dirrell walking out to the centre of the ring and dancing. he was very confident.

dirrell was simply brought along to fast and still has the tendencies of an amateur. a fighter always returns to his safe zone when things turn bad. it has nothing to do with fear. boxing is just an instinctive sport and dirrell had hundreds of amateur fights where he was encouraged to run or clinch to take time of the clock once ahead on points. once you turn pro theres a phase where you have to change those tendencies and learn to fight in another style but he didnt get that time to adapt to the pro ranks.

its something every pro has to go through but he never did, poor promoting. ward competed at the same olympics but got brought up the right way as a pro. he had many amateur tendencies at first too but he got past it. i think thats what dirrell is doing now, in those vegas gyms with hardened pros and great trainers learning how to be a prizefighter. i hope so anyways, but you could see a difference against cunningham, he never fought like that before even against lesser fighters. hes been aggressive but not in a calm collected way like a fighter prepeared to keep it up for 12 rounds.

we know hes working hard with floyd sr, lets just hope they are focusing on the right things.