The Super Middleweight Tournament Begins!

First I want to thank Showtime for putting on what is now panning out to be a great supermiddleweight tournament. Next, I want to complain about the quality of announcing.

Jermaine Taylor v. Arthur Abraham was a very good fight and pretty evenly matched, though Taylor clearly carried the majority of the rounds by sticking, moving and counterpunching with some effectiveness. Abraham spent the majority of the first half of the fight covering up in his peek-a-boo defense and Taylor kept him off-balance by hammering his guard, preventing him from getting off most of the time. What I've described for the first six rounds is practically indisputable, but if you heard the Steve Farhood-led call of this fight you would have thought it was a far more even match. The announcing team was so pro-Abraham that they seemed not to be watching Taylor at all. Every thrown punch by Abraham was a "hammering blow" whether landed or not. Abraham, stalled by the jabs drilling his guard, was "biding his time" as round after round slipped away. But not according the announcers, seemingly caught up in the emotion of the hugely pro-Abraham crowd, refused to acknowledge Taylor's dramatic edge in punchrate, thrown and landed.

Though Abraham, the repeatedly forgiven (and ignored, if the late round alleged tallies of the announcers are to be believed) "late starter" finally warmed up and began banging by round seven and eight, he merely began to make these rounds close. To my mind, Abraham was down at least three points going into the eleventh, where Taylor stepped up the pace and pulled ahead. Nonetheless, in the tenth, the announcing team started talking about how Abraham could be "coasting" because of his big lead on points and indeed at the end of a few rounds, including the end of the eleventh, he was dancing away for the last twenty or thirty seconds, seemingly assured of a win in the round.

Now I know that Abraham won by KO, nailing Taylor on the button with less than a minute left in a practical carbon copy of what Carl Froch did to Taylor just months ago, but this time, I didn't see Taylor fading. I saw him coming on and taking chances. Perhaps that's exactly what left him open to the straight shot on the chin that put him definitively down, but he was definitely in the fight. I was sorry to see Jermaine dropped. I think, considering the fight was clearly in Abraham's back yard, Taylor would have been hard pressed to win the decision he deserved, but to fight over 35 minutes of a 36 minute fight and get KO'd is a real bummer for a classy, fast fighter who will all too likely contiue to get derided (as the Showtime crew repeatedly did) for fading late...when he didn't. He got caught, but he was going full bore.

As for Abraham, he looked like a guy with heavy hands whose hand speed, when he opens up, is good...but I'm not yet sold. He fights like an undefeated fighter, meaning he hasn't yet learned he can lose (notwithstanding his decision win with a grotesquely shattered jaw against Miranda). He thinks that eventually he will catch up to his man...but as he gets into deep water, he'll find that the best fighters can elude him all fight long. That's what I figured Taylor would do...but his concentration lapsed...or he felt he had to wildly engage to win the last round to have a chance in a biased venue. As among these super middles, I'm not sure who's better...probably Kessler...probably Ward, too...but Abraham, by KO'ing Taylor in the last minute of a fight he, like Froch, was losing (by any fair measure) doesn't convince me to annoint him the best of the best. Happily, notwithstanding their poor announcing squad, Showtime is settling that.

The modified round-robin format was explained in detail on the telecast and, irrespective of the issues with hometown scoring and fan support, it seems very fair. I'm impressed that all of these diverse fighters and their teams could agree and I can only imagine that Showtime played a big role in the final arrangements. Thanks Showtime.

Now to bash showtime for their coverage of another great fight they arranged, and which showed in quick succession from the unconscionably pro-Froch British venue: Carl Froch v. Andre Dirrell. Dirrell is clearly the superior boxer. He was markedly faster on his feet, had distinctly better handspeed and punched with far more accuracy. His greatest asset however leads to his greatest shortcoming: he can get away, so he does get away. Meaning, since he can punch once or twice and dance away, avoiding harm, he does. For those of us who like to watch fighters mix it up, that can be frustrating...but for fans of the much slower, but hometown (for this fight) Carl Froch, this was infuriating.

Showering Dirrell with boos, the hometown fans went wild when Froch advanced and even tried to punch. The net effect was that the referee began to favor Froch, by ignoring his almost constant fouling, and the Showtime announcing crew apparently starting watching only Froch to see if and when he could connect. This fight was more lopsided that the Taylor/Abraham affair, again favoring the American fighter in a hostile venue, and again the announcing team was clearly swept away by the fever of the local fight crowd (as were the judges!). To be fair, Dirrell did at times look like he was afraid to engage, and Froch was relegated to stalker an awful lot...but the very frustration Froch felt exposed him for the dirty fighter he is.

And it was Dirrell who had the only point taken all night. I counted no less than nine obvious distinct rabbit punches by Froch and he only ever got warned. The referee seemed to hold Dirrell to a higher standard because he was so clearly the superior technician. Froch was seemingly allowed to get away with more holding and hitting, rabbit punching and bullying (literally throwing Dirrell to the canvas once, over his hip) because he had so much trouble with Dirrell's style: he just couldn't catch him. So it seemed to me that the ref was willing to forgive Froch his roughhouse tactics because well...that's the way he fights. In that case, taking a point from Dirrell for holding was so manifestly unfair that it smacked of an inside job.

Dirrell was classy in accepting the split decision that went Froch's way, seeming to know that he would live to fight another day. Indeed, take Froch out of a venue where his every aggressive movement yields a roar of approval and the result changes. Plug in a referee that keeps Froch honest, at peril of points, and the result would have been what it should have been: Dirrell by unanimous decision. Dirrell could stand to be more crowd pleasing in his style, something he needs to learn now that he's in with fighters who won't wilt when he dazzles with his speed, accuracy and even power. Failing to appreciate that cost him this fight, though I can't say that I think he had a fair shot. He said that he thought he did, in the post-right interview. I wonder, when he goes back to look at it again, if he'll still think so.

Here's to looking forward to the continuing tournament and hoping for it's success, so boxing gets a shot in the arm and more such tournaments can be arranged in different weight classes.