Andre Dirrell interview with Lem Satterfield
(The interview in full can be found at Fan House)
Dirrell: I watched the whole fight. I couldn't stand watching the end. I could not stand watching the end. But as I watched the fight, I was executing perfectly. I was using all of my abilities that I had and the abilities that he couldn't handle to beat him in that fight.
Like I said, I was in training camp, and it was a hard training camp. I knew exactly what I had to work on, and I believe that I executed perfectly. It was a beautifully executed fight -- the way that a boxer is supposed to beat a brawler. I saw that I was given round after round. There were very few flaws.
I was even surprised by my performance. I didn't see holding and I didn't see running. I just utilized the ring well. I thought that it was a beautiful fight, man. It was a beautiful master piece leading up to the disqualification.
Dirrell: My fiance, Alaia Zamora, was with me watching it. I was still anticipating waiting the whole time until the punch had come. It was explained to me when I got hit, where I got hit at, but I still didn't expect it to be the way that it was. I thought that I had gotten hit in the temple, because my temple was very sore.
My head was hurting really bad like I said, and my jaws were hurting. And when I watched the fight, I actually saw that I had slipped, went to get back up, and so I'm more or less up on all fours, looking down. And then he brings the hook in and connected right on my jaw. I believe that my mouth was open a little bit.
And I hated watching it. I didn't even want the camera on me. I hated watching it. It wasn't a good feeling.
Dirrell: I really believe that he took my shine. Even if people say that I was acting, or taking a dive, even if so, and that was 100 percent true, he brought that disqualification on himself. He did that. A lot of people are judging my character when they should be judging his.
Everybody thought that Arthur Abraham was a nice guy who walks around and smiles all day. Even me, I thought that he had a great personality and seemed like a good guy to be around. But when you're in a losing situation, how do you handle yourself then?
When your backs against the ropes, how do you handle yourself then? He showed it. And it's really tough for me to digest. I just wanted that legitimate win, being that I had lost to Carl Froch, and I wanted to bounce back and show the world that that loss didn't affect me mentally.
And I did that, but I didn't get the glorified things that I should have. I didn't get that in-ring interview. I didn't get to go to a post-fight press conference. It was just tough for me to swallow. It's tough for me to swallow right now, it really is. No matter how good that I looked, I wish that I could have finished that fight legitimately.
I watched the tape twice, and I've watched it for the last time. I'm not going to watch it again, and that's a guarantee. I looked at it and I saw where I was on the canvas. I watched me throw a jab on the way down. My legs slipped, and I slid down. He backed up a bit off of that punch, looked at me the whole time, came up and just stared and really just hit me.
After being on the ground for 1.2 seconds. It was a shot that he felt that he had to take, and we all know that he wouldn't done that if he was leading on the score cards. It wouldn't have happened.
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