Carl Froch did a lot of chasing Andre Dirrell during the second fight of the Super Six tournament on Saturday. Although Froch got the nod, it started a debate between the boxing writers and public as to who won the fight.More Super than the Six, it’s the Finito Five!
1. Abraham hits a three pointer to start the Super Six
Boxing fans, by and large, are used to hype surrounding fight promotions; they’re also used to the hype being greater the fight. Just about everyone, however, thought that the Super Six 168-pound tournament had a great chance of living up to the hype. Luckily for all fight fans, they turned out to be exactly right! Going into the Super Six, many figured both Mikkel Kessler and Arthur Abraham were the two favorites. Abraham’s definitive twelfth KO of Jermain Taylor Saturday may just have moved him to the head of the Vegas board. If there’s another fighter with better late round power, he’s has yet to show himself. As a matter of fact, this fight almost mirrored Taylor’s fight with Carl Froch earlier this year; Taylor winning the early rounds, Abraham coming on late, and finally, Taylor tiring and not making it out of the last 30 seconds of the fight. Abraham connected with a crushing straight right that got through the gloves of Taylor, knocking the former middleweight champion more out than Elton John. The fact that referee Guadelupe Garcia counted at all was silly, unless the Mexican referee wanted to practice his English.
The result of all this is that with the Super Six point system, the Armenian Abraham takes a commanding lead, as he received two points for the win, and an additional point for the KO (great idea, by the way). Taylor, however, may have some hard decisions to make. This is his third brutal knockout loss is his last five fights (Froch and Kelly Pavlik), and he was found after the fight to have had a severe concussion and short-term memory loss. He was released from the hospital, but with tough fights against Andre Ward and Kessler left, it’s not like he can take a tune up fight beforehand. It’s tough to see another knockout not happening with at least one of those fights, so perhaps it’s time for Taylor to bow out, if not call it a career. It would sure be a shame to see another brutal knockout damaging permanently the only man to beat Bernard Hopkins twice.
2. Froch holds on, Dirrell holds Froch, fans & pundits hold an argument
The second Super Six fight of the night, while light on scintillating action, presented a fascinating situation the boxing universe doesn’t see that often: Boxing media and fans disagreeing. Many figured Andre Dirrell, who has been known to turn it on and off like the power company, might actually come out with a consistent effort against England’s Carl Froch, Dirrell’s biggest opponent to date. What they got was Dirrell showing flashes of brilliance, but also flashes of complete brain lock. While the Flint, Michigan native befuddled Froch with hand speed and movement, he also held the entire fight, and it was only a matter of time before referee Hector Afu deducted a point, which he eventually did. The amazing part however, was that it didn’t matter, as two judges had it 115-112 for Froch (Dirrell won the other card 114-113). Even stranger, almost all the media had Froch winning a fight in which he did almost nothing in the first eight rounds. Although punch stats were not kept, it was clear that Dirrell, although running and holding, was the only guy landing any shots. Froch did get to him later on, but it seems Dirrell was unfairly penalized for his fight strategy; boxing fans were incredulous, which led to several interesting chats and blogs arguing that Dirrell was the obvious victor despite press assertions to the contrary. Just watch the end of the fight; Froch didn’t look at all like he thought he’d won, and the hush over the pro-Froch Nottingham crowd was palpable. Many boxing writers say that crowds don’t score fights, but boxing fans know who won individual rounds. It has been written here before that Dirrell is a frustrating enigma, which he still is. But he still looked to be the better man this night, and got a big goose egg for it.
3. Ahh, but at least he’s more coherent than George Foreman
Showtime’s newly added third man on the announce team (along with “Captain Coronary” Gus Johnson and Steve Farhood), former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver, has impressed with his knowledge and ability to spot trends in fights. But like any rookie, you had to know there would be a few rookie moments. He may not have thrown five interceptions like first-year New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez last Sunday, but he did manage to combine Carl Froch’s name and call him “Crotch” live during the postfight analysis. Although he corrected himself a few seconds later, I’m sure this had to bring back painful memories for Froch of being teased at school; perhaps that’s why he became a boxer, huh? Give Tarver a mulligan, but be happy he didn’t have to pronounce the names of Frankie Tucker or Shawn Pitt, two boxers of the last twenty years. Then again, this is Showtime, home of the “L” Word and the Tudors, right? I guess we’re lucky Tarver didn’t try to get it on with the ring card girl! Ahh, premium cable – it’s not just for boxing.
4. The future of the heavyweight division…
In the heavyweight era of the Klitschko’s, both of whom are in their late 30’s, the fight game has been starving for young challengers. Lately, however, most of these Next Generation of boxing big boys has turned out to be more talk than talent. Does anyone really think that Kevin Johnson, Alex Povetkin or Tony Thompson are boxing’s next wave? Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Dimitrenko and Sam Peter had that designation at one point, as well. Yawn. Thankfully, there may be some hope on the horizon. October 10th showcased both Cuban Odlanier Solis obliterating division gatekeeper Monte Barrett on the Juan Manuel Lopez-Rogers Mtagwa undercard, plus exciting Russian puncher Denis Boytsov knocking down overmatched Jason Gavern six times in Mecklenberg, Germany. While it’s too early to tell whether these two will go the way of any of the fighters mentioned above, both have excellent power, and created exciting knockouts of their opponents. Both have hand speed and accuracy rare in a heavyweight. While Solis came in too heavy at 271 and Boytsov’s biggest opponent to date is Taras Bidenko, both these deficiencies can be rectified. And the best part? The both look to have that something special others only wish for. Now that Cris Arreola has lost his Klitschko bid, maybe one of these two will challenge down the road.
5. …and the heavyweight past that should stay that way
All right, you knew it would happen, didn’t you? Just when it was safe to talk about Solis and Boytsov and the future of the heavyweight division, boxing fans are treated to Shannon Briggs’ comeback the same weekend. Really? You mean the Shannon Briggs that couldn’t hang with Sultan “What, me, hepatitis?” Ibragimov? Since his loss to Jameel McCline back in 2002, Briggs has racked up victories against the likes of Jeff Pegues, Wade Lewis, John Sargent, Luciano Zolyone and Chris Koval. Those names might be the lineup of the next season of VH1’s Tool Academy for all most boxing fans have heard of them. Yeah, Briggs did beat Sergey Lyakhovich, who might be working in a Russian Waffle House because no one has heard from him since. Now at 37, what is Briggs going to accomplish at this point? All comebacks must be measured against beating the Klitschko’s, and if Ibragimov couldn’t come close, what makes Briggs think he would be any different? His new manager, Ivaylo Gotzev, said, “We want to see how Vitali (Klitschko) feels when he's looking at an opponent, eye to eye, who can punch harder and faster than he can." Yes, Ivaylo, so do we; that guy sure as hell isn’t Briggs, though. The only chance Briggs has of knocking either Klitschko out is if he puts some of Antonio Margarito’s plaster of Paris in his dreadlocks!
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