By Cliff Rold

Arthur Abraham came into Detroit on Saturday night as the favorite to win the Super Six Super Middleweight tournament; came in the perceived most dangerous man in class; came in undefeated.

He’s still probably the most dangerous man at 168 lbs. but his favorite status is in question and undefeated is no more.

Given the ending of the contest with Andre Dirrell on Saturday night, it would be easy to say Abraham has no one to blame but himself but that would miss the lion’s share of credit Dirrell earned. 

Dirrell (19-1, 13 KO) isn’t the only one who deserved credit for a performance on the weekend.  Abraham (31-1, 25 KO) isn’t the only fighter forced to live with an unfortunate first.  The rest will be gotten to in time.  For now…     

Let’s go to the report card.

Grades
Pre-Fight: Speed – Abraham B; Dirrell A+/Post: Same
Pre-Fight: Power – Abraham A+; Dirrell B/Post: A+; B+
Pre-Fight: Defense – Abraham B+; Dirrell B/Post: B+; B+
Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Abraham B+; Dirrell B/Post: C+; B+

The big question is up first, getting it out of the way: when Dirrell slipped in round eleven, and Abraham caught him with a blind right hand, was Dirrell really as hurt as he behaved or was he throwing down a little ham?

Watching live, Dirrell’s fog appeared fairly legitimate.  The punch didn’t look like a killer but it did land clean.  Watching again in the morning, there were some hints of Montell Griffin-like melodrama.  So the big answer:

Who cares? 

Seriously, even if Dirrell was riffing some improv, Abraham drafted the script.  Already having lost almost every round of the fight, Abraham gave away any chance, or right, he had to pursue the highlight reel comeback.  

Yes, referee Laurence Cole appeared out of position and it all happened so fast that Abraham may have acted in the heat of the moment or not heard the referee yelling “no” from behind him.  It doesn’t matter.  Hit a man when he’s on the floor and, while not always leading to a disqualification, it’s a guaranteed flirtation.  Even if Dirrell wasn’t as hurt as he appeared, Abraham screwed himself and there’s nothing wrong with taking the victory an opponent hands you.   

Well behind in the fight, having been dropped in officially in round four and, uncalled, in the seventh, Abraham dug a deep hole and lost his composure.  It didn’t have to be that way.  The German-based Armenian was staging a pretty dramatic rally.  He had a strong eighth, scored what looked like a missed knockdown in the tenth (not Cole’s best night) and Dirrell was flagging as Abraham gave chase in round eleven.

There were well over four minutes left in the fight and there’s a good chance Abraham catches Dirrell with something big and, most importantly, clean.  If not, he ends up with the same “L” on his record.  He didn’t have the patience for that.

And he didn’t have the answers necessary to stop Dirrell from putting him behind the eight-ball in the first place. 

It was no shock for anyone who has followed Abraham to see him fall behind early while not doing much.  What was a shock was the way Dirrell’s aggressive posture and offensive assault forced Abraham to open up earlier than usual.

And by opening up early, by being taken out of his rhythm, Abraham made mistakes.  The knockdown he suffered in the fourth didn’t appear to hurt Abraham but he was wildly off balance.  Dirrell’s speed was killing him, not just in hand but in the seamless smoothness of transition between southpaw and orthodox stances.  To his credit, Dirrell was winning exchanges and taking what shots there were from one of the best pure punchers in the sport since Julian Jackson.

Dirrell also brought out some of the same complaining posture in Abraham he was accused of employing himself last year in Dirrell’s lone loss to Carl Froch.  From a distance, Dirrell was ripping straight shots towards the belly, some of them hitting the cup line of Abraham.  Rather than fire back, or even aim one low himself to make a point, Abraham consistently looked to Cole for help.  Every second spent complaining was a second where he wasn’t punching and, frankly, very few of the shots were worth complaining about.

Abraham behaved too much like he expected to win, not enough like he came prepared to win until far too late in the fight.  It wasn’t like this was the first time Dirrell had fought the way he did against Abraham. 

Dirrell, facing huge odds to advance to the tournament semi-finals without a win on Saturday, showed the sort of big stage ascendance he has lacked in the past.  Given the chance to pursue Gold at the Olympics, Dirrell faltered and left with Bronze; in his first HBO appearance, drearily defeating Curtis Stevens, and first major title fight loss to Froch, Dirrell let his worst attributes overcome what we saw against Abraham.

And what was seen versus Abraham is a fighter who can be among the very best in the world.  That was a confident, almost defiant performance against Abraham for most of the night.

The Super Six rolls on, Abraham towards his own clash with Froch later this year and Dirrell, now looking very live, towards a clash with Olympic teammate Andre Ward.  Dirrell should have plenty of time to recover from any damage done on Saturday and Ward won’t be hitting anywhere near as hard as Abraham no matter the circumstance.

Both Froch and Ward are still undefeated; Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green, respectively, will do their best to change that in the next couple months.

With Ward and Dirrell, against early favorites Kessler and Abraham, scoring upsets in rounds one and two, the Super Six is proving a unique thrill ride.  If Kessler and Green both manage to win their second round bouts, it will generate a third round of high drama boxing hasn’t seen before given point tallies and building tides of bad blood between the American and European sides.

Let’s just hope the bad blood doesn’t eventually kill this whole thing before it finds an ending.  It would be no surprise to see these two, Dirrell and Abraham, finishing (or at least continuing) what they started in Detroit on Saturday night with even higher tournament stakes at play down the line.

As noted, Abraham wasn’t the only fighter to see his “0” go on Saturday.  At least he didn’t also lose a world title. 

Thanks to the kind souls who populate YouTube, the big Flyweight championship fight between reigning lineal king Koki Kameda (22-1, 14 KO) and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (75-3-1, 39 KO) is there for a look and provides action which lives up to the story it tells.      

Grades
Pre-Fight: Speed – Kameda B+; Wonjongkam B/Post: Same
Pre-Fight: Power – Kameda B; Wonjongkam B/Post: Same
Pre-Fight: Defense – Kameda B+; Wonjongkam B/Post: Same
Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Kameda B+; Wonjongkam A-/Post: Kameda B; Wonjongkam A

From 2001-07, Thailand’s Wonjongkam amassed an impressive 17 consecutive title defenses, passing the record of Hall of Fame 112 lb. great Miguel Canto.  He had some good wins, some padding defenses, and little in the way of defining fights. 

Saturday, regaining the title nearly three years after he lost it, the 32-year old grabbed that as well.  Boxing smart early, Wonjongkam used greater accuracy to build a lead in the open scoring on two cards.  A pair of accidental head clashes between the two southpaws caused a cut on the right eye of the 23-year old local Kameda in round five.  The youngster used the crimson to spur a rally.

It was overcome by the older man’s late round rally.  It’s not often one sees a ten years older man with nearly eighty fights pulling away in the stretch but that’s what happened.  Using timing and education to overcome diminished speed and activity, Wonjongkam just did more work, and better work, down the stretch.  Kameda, whose television numbers and public following in Japan make him easily one of the game’s biggest global stars, didn’t have the solutions to keep his crown in his first defense.

There is always a second chance.  Kameda’s too big a presence not to get one and a rematch could be interesting.  So too would a fifth fight with the man who initially dethroned Wonjongakm, Daisuke Naito (35-3-3, 22 KO); Wonjongkam leads their series 2-1-1.  Former WBC Jr. Flyweight titlist Edgar Sosa (37-6, 21 KO) is expected to receive a WBC mandated shot at Wonjongkam, probably at the pole position in terms of opportunity.

That can all wait.  For now, it is enough to say that Wonjongkam earned a right to be rated with history’s top Flyweights, if not amongst the top ten or fifteen then not too far behind.  A record title reign the first time around, a major upset to recapture the honors and…well, he’s not done yet.  Perhaps Wonjongkam has only begun the process of polishing what should now be considered strong potential Hall of Fame credentials.

Cliff’s Notes…

Live by YouTube and die by it.  The Anselmo Moreno-Nehomar Cermeno bout is as yet unseen so no post-fight grades to be delivered.  It is enough to crow on making a correct pick there, Moreno (29-1-1, 10 KO) retaining the WBA Bantamweight belt for the sixth time with a split nod over Cermeno (19-1, 11 KO).  Flyweight was tipped correctly as well, while blowing the Super Middleweight encounter.  What the heck…two out of three ain’t bad.

Report Card Picks 2010: 8-2

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com