By Keith Idec (photo by Tom Casino/Showtime)
The first time a highly touted, favored European super middleweight came to the United States to face a talented former American Olympian in Showtime’s “Super Six World Boxing Classic,” Andre Ward dominated Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler to completely change the complexion of this six-man super middleweight tournament.
Undefeated Arthur Abraham has warned American fight fans not to expect it to happen again when he fights Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KOs) in the second stage of the ‘Super Six’ tonight at the famed Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs), roughly a 2-1 favorite despite fighting just about an hour away from Dirrell’s hometown of Flint, Mich., expects to deliver another superb performance against an opponent who presents a vastly different challenge than the former middleweight champion Abraham knocked out in the 12th round Oct. 17 in Berlin.
“Dirrell is fast, but that will not help him,” Abraham, 30, said. “I am in the ‘Super Six’ to become a legend in America. I need a win [tonight] to accomplish that goal. And I will get that win.”
His fight against Dirrell indeed presents Abraham with an opportunity to gain greater name recognition in the United States. His impressive resume and punching power have already earned the Armenian-born, Berlin-based boxer a spot on Yahoo! Sports’ pound-for-pound list (No. 7).
But the Dirrell-Abraham match will be available to all cable and satellite subscribers in the United States as part of Showtime’s free preview weekend. That means more than four times as many people than usual will be able to watch it tonight at 10:30 p.m. EDT.
Wilfried Sauerland, Abraham’s promoter, expects his fighter to make a lasting impression on action-craving fight fans.
“Arthur will win because he is too strong for Dirrell,” Sauerland said. “The American fans will love Arthur’s style. He is incredibly powerful and a very strong puncher, with a sensational record of 31-0 and 25 KOs. That is what people love to see. He will put on a great show [tonight].”
He put on a great show when he fought Taylor in Abraham’s adopted hometown, but Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) was a fast-fading, 31-year-old fighter who had been knocked out by WBC super middleweight champ Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KOs) and WBC/WBO middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik (36-1, 32 KOs) in two of his previous four fights. While most boxing observers expected the Abraham-Taylor fight to be more competitive than it was before Abraham knocked Taylor unconscious with a single right hand late in the 12th round, the final result wasn’t completely surprising.
Dirrell, however, is a 26-year-old southpaw whose versatility, movement, speed and sneaky power provide different issues for Abraham.
Unlike Taylor, he isn’t likely to stand in front of Abraham and trade. Abraham will have to find Dirrell to land fight-changing punches, and even if he does, Dirrell displayed a reliable chin against Froch, Russian knockout artist Victor Oganov (30-3, 28 KOs) and Anthony Hanshaw (21-2-1, 14 KOs) after an uninspiring performance against heavy-handed New Yorker Curtis Stevens (21-3, 15 KOs), whom Dirrell defeated on points by literally running away from Stevens throughout their 10-round fight in June 2007 in Uncasville, Conn.
Dirrell, who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, has lost only once as a professional and has never been knocked out. Froch defeated Dirrell in his last fight, the same night Abraham battered Taylor, by a debatable split decision in Nottingham, England, Froch’s hometown.
The close, controversial loss to Froch didn’t hurt his reputation all that much, but Dirrell realizes that overcoming Abraham would convince skeptics that he is one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
“Nothing can get in the way of my dedication and achieving my dream,” said Dirrell, who suffered back spasms during training that forced a three-week postponement of his fight against Abraham, from March 6 until tonight, and a site switch, from Rancho Mirage, Calif., to Detroit. “You have to have a different game plan for each fighter you face, and we have a strong game plan for me to execute with Abraham. I have faced power punchers before, none as explosive as Abraham, but I have fought power punchers in my career and handled them well.
“I’m smarter, faster and more elusive, and I feel that I have the most skill and speed. It will be difficult for him to catch on to my style … I won’t feed into him and fight his fight, but I will let these hands fly.”
If Abraham cannot catch up to Dirrell, he is a lot less concerned about the bout going to the scorecards than he once was.
Abraham’s team protested possible use of three judges and a referee from Michigan, so Texas’ Laurence Cole was chosen as the referee for the fight. The three judges will be Italy’s Guido Cavalleri, Thailand’s Anek Hongtongkam and American Frank Garza, of Lincoln Park, Mich.
Regardless, Abraham’s handlers believe Dirrell will be added to their fighter’s long list of knockout victims, much the way trash-talking Colombian Edison Miranda was during Abraham’s only other fight on American soil. Miranda (33-4, 29 KOs) broke Abraham’s jaw during their first fight, a 12-round unanimous decision win for Abraham 3½ years ago in Wetzlar, Germany, but Abraham manhandled him en route to a fourth-round technical knockout win in June 2008 in Hollywood, Fla.
Since his points win against Miranda in September 2006, only one of Abraham’s nine opponents, Philadelphia’s Lajuan Simon (22-2-2, 12 KOs, 1 NC), has gone the distance with him.
“We are looking forward to fighting in America again,” said Ulli Wegner, Abraham’s trainer. “Everybody said we were crazy when we came over to fight in Edison Miranda’s backyard in June 2008 and Arthur knocked him out. I think the outcome will be the same [tonight] — a great victory for Arthur.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.
