By Terence Dooley

A weekend in Nottingham gave me an opportunity to take in the Carl Froch versus Andre Dirrell Super Six contest, as well as the UK Bodybuilding finals, which took place over the course of Saturday and Sunday.  The relaxed pace of Sunday’s bodybuilding contest also gave me plenty of time to mull over the split-decision win handed to Carl Froch the previous night. 

As the bronzed behemoths went through their poses memories of Carl’s poor performance, and Dirrell’s negative one, caused me to wonder if the much-touted Super Six World Boxing Classic was going to produce any memorable matches.  Indeed, the UKBFF finals have interesting parallels with the Super Six tournament.  Regional qualifiers give the bodybuilders a chance to travel up-and-down the country building up a fan base as they do so and, hopefully, getting the regional wins needed to send the competitors through to the finals. 

It is a good format; the fans can pick out guys at a regional show and then cheer them on at the finals themselves.  This is not dissimilar to the Super Six tournament set-up.  The fighters have home and away contests, giving them the chance to impress away fans as well as building momentum and support.

It is not just that.  Zack Khan electrified the crowd at last year’s bodybuilding finals only to place fourth and lose to the well-conditioned Alvin Small, who won the contest.  Khan went away and built up the bulk and, more importantly, conditioning needed to take this year’s crown.  Similarly, the Super Six boxers are engaging in high-quality match-ups, flaws shown in one fight can be highlighted and corrected in time for the next engagement - with the boxing fans, in theory, the overall winners.

Handled correctly, the Super Six is capable of reenergizing the sport of boxing, which was pronounced dead the moment it came into being and has been getting the last rites ever since. Boxing, like bodybuilding, lives on the fringes; anything that galvanises the fans, and contestants, should be welcomed with open arms. 

However, the Super Six started off badly on Saturday night, especially in Nottingham, where Carl Froch and Andre Dirrell showed the fans exactly what they do not want to see during the course of this competition.  Let’s get one thing straight: Froch fought badly, he was terrible at times, not to mention rough. Dirrell, though, did not even fight - boxing very negatively for the majority of the contest. 

As a taster for the competition Froch-Dirrell failed on almost every level.  Froch is currently being pelted for being one-dimensional, pedestrian and KO hungry – qualities that people used to love him for.  On the other hand we have Dirrell.  People will pay handsomely not to watch Andre box next time out; they should stick him on Primetime. 

The Showtime executives must be scratching their heads.  Super Six was designed as a showcase yet if a fighter, or fight, stinks how can they convince people to tune in for the next instalment?  No, the contest in Nottingham, and the Arthur Abraham-Jermain Taylor fight over in Berlin, served to knock a little bit of lustre off the tournament.  Mick Hennessy fulfilled his part of the deal by showing the Taylor contest on big screen TVs. However, as the Berlin opener played out at Nottingham’s cold Trent FM Arena you could feel the enthusiasm of the fans starting to wane.

By round twelve the only realistic hope was that Jermain would win a moral victory by actually going the distance – as he did in 2008 when coming back from the first Kelly Pavlik reverse.  A huge right hand from Abraham destroyed those hopes, and Jermain Taylor, at 2:54 of the final round.  The once-touted American went down heavily and scarily.  Retirement is, surely, the only option for Jermain at this point.  One fight in and he is, at best, the tournament’s whipping boy. A high-class whipping boy certainly but there can no longer be any hint of expectation surrounding Jermain’s chances.

So, strike Taylor out of the Super Six equation.  They may decide to draft in Allan Green should Jermain retire.  Green is a solid enough fighter but we have to bear in mind that he has frozen in his biggest tests.  The trash talking Tulsa native has dined out on the Jaidon Codrington KO for years.  Allan’s last big KO win, a two-round destruction of Carlos De Leon Junior back in April, was impressive but how can we be sure that Allan will not revert to type in a fight with, say, Mikkel Kessler?  We cannot be sure; therefore, we cannot get too excited over Allan’s possible inclusion.  Leaving us, again, with Jermain, the man who has put the stupor into Super Six.

Still, the tepid nature of the fight aside, Taylor’s tussle with Abraham was punctuated by a devastating KO finish.  The expectant Nottingham crowd managed to keep itself bubbling despite having to wait a ridiculously long time for the Froch-Dirrell match – still; they warmed themselves by thinking about the pre-fight war of words waged by Dirrell, now 18-1 (13) and Froch, who rises to 26-0 (20 early).

Any expectations were killed stone dead during the course of the ensuing snoozefest.  People were left wondering if the boxers were sleepwalking in there – or sleep running in the case of Dirrell.  Andre, 26, had talked long and hard about what he was going to lay on Froch. He opted, instead, to punish those in attendance by boxing negatively for large periods. 

Fittingly, the fight took place in an ice skating arena, which could account for the fact that Dirrell (167½ lb) froze during this big opportunity.  The man known as ‘The Matrix’ lived up to his name; he produced a boring fight in which he put out some glossy stuff on occasion but failed excite overall – similar to The Matrix film series.

Carl Froch, 32, boxed like Carl Froch in that he opted to spend an entire fight looking for the boot-smoking punches that had done for Eamon Magee and Jermain Taylor. Dirrell is no Robin Reid, and he is sturdier than Taylor, also.  Carl, in following one unsuccessful plan for the entire fight, made himself a less-than-attractive option to the casual boxing fan.

Froch (167½ lb) cannot improve, he is what he is; Dirrell, though, can improve but he will always be cautious.  Andre was negative for large portions of this fight.  What kind of spectacle will his next fight, versus Arthur Abraham, turn out to be?

As for the decision itself, it was a close one, a point or two either way; BoxingScene scored it 115-112 for Froch.  There is no real need to claim that Dirrell was Robin Hooded out of the WBC crown.  In fact, the most remarkable facet of the fight is that it set a record for the world’s biggest orgy – as thousands of people slept together on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Those who claim that Froch is merely a limited roughhouser need to look at Dirrell’s previous contests. He has defeated limited boxers before, so why not Froch?  Carl may not be quite as limited it seems or, alternatively, Dirrell is not quite as good as people had previously thought. 

Granted, things started well for Dirrell, and the fans, when the man from Flint, Michigan came out in the orthodox posture – his punchers stance.  It was Froch, though, who landed the first decent shots of the contest, straight right hands to the body that put Dirrell on the back foot, where he switched to southpaw in a bid to keep his distance.  The right hands to the body had an effect on Dirrell’s style; consequently, the work of Froch had impacted on Dirrell’s approach.  We generally give a fighter credit for this.

Dirrell stayed on the back foot during rounds two and three.  In the third session he started to find some range, a left hand counter caught Froch cleanly.  Froch, though, stormed back with an amateurish right hand swipe to the head of Dirrell, who had followed his breakthrough shot with some nice back-pedalling. 

This is another case in point.  Dirrell landed a shot then chose to move backwards, ceding his advantage; Froch used Dirrell’s backwards movement to trundle forward and land his own shot.  In a fight where nothing much happens little moments like this can be scored one way or the other; however, most experienced judges will reward Froch in this instance as Dirrell failed to capitalise on his opening and was punished for this reticence by Froch.  This incident summed up the fight.  Dirrell would score with a shot then immediately look to back away, handing Froch the opportunity to move in with his own agricultural swings.  In short: Dirrell did not try to press his advances; Froch, in his way, worked his advances well.

Dirrell woke up to the task in the later stanzas – he drilled Carl with left hands in the seventh and eighth rounds.  Carl, though, landed a rare, strong left hook in the eighth.  This set-up a decent ninth, arguably Carl’s best round of the fight.  Dirrell’s corner were starting to look, and sound, worried, they told their man that he had to box rather than hold.

Dirrell’s case was further hindered in the tenth round when the referee, Hector Afu, penalised Dirrell for pulling Carl in, although it initially looked to me that the ref had punished Andre for a fairly innocuous head gesture.  Afu should have punished Froch at some point, also, as Carl kept broke pretty much every rule in the manual during this fight.  Dirrell responded to the deduction with another strong left hand – this one stiffened Froch’s legs and the hometown fighter was forced to wing back after being hit with yet another left.  Dirrell had his best round but, ironically, it was destined to go down as a even round due to the –1 in Dirrell’s deductions column.

Those who believe that Dirrell was in the clear going into the final round should pay attention his cornermen, and uncle, Leon Lawson Junior.  The counsel from Andre’s corner makes for interesting listening, Andre was told to put Carl away; fears of a hometown shafting, perhaps, or a sign that they knew that Dirrell had not done enough to catch the eyes of the judges.  Whatever, Dirrell landed the left freely in the final round only for Froch to respond with a solid right uppercut; the fight had finally caught fire. 

The fight was an ordeal, rather the showcase that many had expected.  When the score of 113-114 and two lots of 115-112 were turned in there was not a single murmur of complaint from those at ringside.  Indeed, Dirrell himself looked forlorn at the post-fight presser, allowing his promoter Gary Shaw to do most of the talking.  Shaw did not rage against the so-called ‘robbery’ perpetrated by the three neutral judges.

“Andre has learned that when you come away to the champions country you have to win convincingly and Andre didn’t do that tonight - not in the eyes of two of the three judges,” said Shaw.  “I felt that he won a close fight.  I am very proud of my fighter.  If he would have unloaded early – we had told him to box  – we might have had more success as he traded late on and had success.”

Shaw continued: “I thought it was a close fight, personally.  I thought we might have won it by a round.  It wasn’t three or four rounds either way and we give our full respect to Carl and his camp.  Andre’s style may not have been pleasing to the judges but that was the gameplan.

“People talk about fighting but this sport is boxing.  Andre Dirrell is a superior boxer and should get credit for that.  You don’t have to stand in front of someone and get your head punched in.  It may not be pleasing for Carl, who wants to punch your lights out, but Andre is not going to stand there for that – he was boxing.”

A dejected Dirrell echoed the sentiments of his promoter.  “I feel that I did my job,” sighed the beaten challenger.  “I could have did more but I guess I wasn’t ready for the dirty tactics that Carl Froch brought to the table.  I’ll have to come back stronger next time.”

“I do believe that I could have did more but I feel that I won the fight,” revealed Dirrell.  “I feel it was a close fight but I pulled it off.  I’m a fighter.  I believe I will be champion and will take this as a learning experience.  Carl just made it a rough fight in there and the decision is what it is – it will make me work harder.”

Froch was not happy with his own performance, either; the man from Nottingham cut a deflated figure during the presser.  “I was a little bit disappointed by the general performance,” claimed Carl. 

“I’m not injured or hurt, no knocks or bangs.  This wasn’t the type of fight that I had with Jean Pascal – you don’t need too many of those types of wars in your career.  In terms of longevity this won’t give me any trouble at all.  I wasn’t hurt or banged about in any way.  It was dissatisfying as a warrior not to have that trade-off.  Mikkel Kessler will give me that and give the fans and TV what they want. 

“Andre is fast, skilful, he is an awkward southpaw and he is tall.  Couple all that with the negativity he brought tonight and it makes for a difficult night’s work.  I’m still champion and I’ve beaten a top American fighter – British boxers don’t usually take on guys like this.”

Carl continued: “I watched Arthur [Abraham] take three points tonight so it is starting to get interesting.  I’ll look forward to seeing Mikkel Kessler against Andre Ward.  My confidence is high.  Andre needs to dust himself off and work hard to beat his next opponent.  People who think I’m an Arturo Gatti-style warmonger need to look at how I’ve just out-boxed the best that America has to offer.  I know it was a split-decision but I deserved to win the fight.”

Froch bridled when asked if he had been worried when the split decision was announced.  “Why would I have been worried,” he replied.  “I was shocked when it was a split decision but I was one-hundred percent that it would go in my favour.  He was ducking low so I was hitting what was there and taking what I could.  The referee has got to sort it out and he did a fantastic job. 

“If you want to be a world champion you’ve got to take risks and engage.  You can’t just pot shot.  This is not amateur boxing it is professional boxing.  He did feel very weak in close and I felt that I could have picked him up and snapped him in half.  I was rag-dolling him in-close and he could feel it whenever I clipped him, that is why he was running.”

It seemed that there was little or nothing more to say about the contest.  It had been dire and should been consigned to the dustbin of fights that have failed to match the hype.  Conversely, the fight has become one of those odd Internet furores, with fans throwing around the word ‘robbery’ in relation to the contest.  This is nonsense, clearly; Shaw and Dirrell are not crying foul so maybe, just maybe, it was a close fight that had a point or two in it. 

Unfortunately, we live in an age where storms in a virtual teacup are commonplace.  Popular TV pundit Steve Bunce loses his job and the fans launch a website, kick-off a petition and they also, inadvertently, stir up a political storm over the signatures that they have gathered for that petition.  Then the big man gets a plum role anchoring the British telecast and guess what?  He says that Froch won a close one and becomes an instant pariah.  The Internet eh?  Bloody Nora.

No, the Froch-Dirrell rumpus is an argument over a close fight, with some arguing strongly for one guy, some going all-out to for defend the other guy, and a small band of rational types trying to argue that it was a close two-pointer that also featured a point deduction.  Hardly the crime of the century is it?  Ah well, in a few days we’ll have another furore, a fresh bunch of threads, a petition or two and a new email address to inundate with complaints.  This fight is truly forgettable; it should be consigned to the record books.

Any debate should focus on the main issue, specifically the fact that the Super Six is off to a terrible start and has, in Taylor and Dirrell, two fighters who are simply not capable of producing classic fights and/or performances.  We also have Froch, who has plateaued as a fighter; on Saturday’s evidence he will be lucky to win a handful of rounds against Mikkel Kessler. 

As for Kessler, layoff or no layoff the Dane must be licking his lips in anticipation. He takes on Andre Ward next, the same Ward who was negative when defeating Edison Miranda back in May.  A dominant win for Kessler will be a death blow to this contest. It would leave Kessler and Abraham as the two clear front runners, with the likes of Dirrell and Ward adding a bit of filler and Froch a dash of thriller, given the right circumstances.