Should we forget about Andre Dirrell?

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.

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."

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

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.

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.

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

Neither of the Dirrells doing ****

It does seem like Dirrell is wasting his talent. Maybe his heart is not into it anymore. If so he should just retire.

We always see every 6 months a news story on BS along the lines of "Dirrell in the gym training hard" with some pictures. Training hard for what? Why isn't he fighting? Doesn't he need money? I have no clue what he's up to, the last I read was an un-televised fight that doesn't look like is going to happen - annnd uh, news like that doesn't exactly help my argument lol.. you've got me on that one. "A couple of months" they say now... I'm just saying that at least he doesn't let himself go so if he gathers the heart to continue then at least he'd be ready physically. I guess the flip side of hearing he's "been in the gym" is that he might be figuring out he doesn't want to get back to the real fights. If that's the case then at least he's saving us the TV time.

He's better off than some active guys like Kelly Pavlik, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Lucian Bute, etc. Andre Dirrell is talked about a lot for an inactive fighter. Reminds me of Mayweather in 2008. 1,000 threads about why Mayweather isn't relevant and how he needs to fight again to be an ATG. he isnt talked up that much nor is he anywhere near as accomplished as mayweather was < 2008 (???) i used to defend him throughout the super six...i felt he was robbed against froch and abraham was scum for not acknowledging his foul but the truth is dirrell probably hasnt improved due to the long lay off while its been years when froch has been referred to as a brawler and he's improved immensely. yet dirrell is still mentioning froch like he can still right that wrong while doing no more than hitting the mitts with floyd sr :lol1:

First off let me say i'm a huge fan of Dirrell and I think he's the most talented and athletic 168 pounder. But in the past 4 years, since 2009, he's fought twice, and one of them was a 2nd round knockout, so he hasn't gotten very much ring time in at all. He just turned 30 years old. Is it too late or can he make a big splash and conquer 168? Andre Dirrell, albeit a good boxer, is an idiot. He faked a head injury, which was not beneficial to him because he wasted valuable prime months sitting on the sidelines when he was never really injured, he burned his bridges with Showtime and left a sour taste in the mouth of many fans such as myself who are condemning him for his cowardice. I'm no manager but what he should have done was grew a pair, fought Ward (I know they're great friends but its the sport) and beat him like I predicted, then fought whoever else in the S6. Then chased Bute and cleaned out 168. He certainly has the tools to do it. But now he's inactive, in the shadows, locked up in promotion issues and the rest of the fighters at 168 who years ago I said Andre would whoop has improved and would give him a much tougher fight. Discuss. He left Al Haymon, Gary Shaw an hasn't fought in over a year plus so yes...I think it safe to say we should forget about the Matrix.

Andre has done s**t since the AA fight wtf.

guess froch will always be superior unless dirrell can step up

I wouldn't give up on him because it seems like he's been in the gym this whole time, so maybe he comes back as a repackaged fighter. Promotional wise he will be, so he better come out gunning. Right now I look at him kinda like Robert Guerrero in that he's had some setbacks, but has the built-in skills to make a strong run during the 2nd half of his career because he's still pretty fresh. Obviously I'm not as confident in his mental toughness as I am with Robert's, but he still has some upside I think. If he's really serious then he'll probably have to take some risks to make up for lost time and he'll be back in a fight where he has to dig deep, if he does then he's back. We always see every 6 months a news story on BS along the lines of "Dirrell in the gym training hard" with some pictures. Training hard for what? Why isn't he fighting? Doesn't he need money?

I wouldn't give up on him because it seems like he's been in the gym this whole time, so maybe he comes back as a repackaged fighter. Promotional wise he will be, so he better come out gunning. Right now I look at him kinda like Robert Guerrero in that he's had some setbacks, but has the built-in skills to make a strong run during the 2nd half of his career because he's still pretty fresh. Obviously I'm not as confident in his mental toughness as I am with Robert's, but he still has some upside I think. If he's really serious then he'll probably have to take some risks to make up for lost time and he'll be back in a fight where he has to dig deep, if he does then he's back.

I don't think about him and never really did. I don't know if he faked everything or what, but I seriously doubt he'll come back and be the fighter he was.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt if he truly returns. But, it's been so long that I'm not thinking him in the context of top guys in the division. When you're out that long, you're semi-retired. Long lay offs are rarely helpful to a boxer's career. But, I hope he can return to form.

He's waiting for everyone to fight each other and get old before his fragile confidence can start to believe again. Imagine Andre Dirrell with Carl Frochs mental toughness? That would be a winning combo, Andre Ward would be number 2 at 168

I forgot about him After that terrible acting job vs Abraham!

He's better off than some active guys like Kelly Pavlik, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Lucian Bute, etc. Andre Dirrell is talked about a lot for an inactive fighter. Reminds me of Mayweather in 2008. 1,000 threads about why Mayweather isn't relevant and how he needs to fight again to be an ATG. Terrible, horrid comparison. Mayweather is certfied one of the greatest fighters ever and Dirrell is unproven and has one good win over AA. And he's not better off than those guys cause those guys are actually FIGHTING, while he remains inactive.