Showtime: Dirrell v. Abraham

I am blogging starting in the third round of the Dirrell/Abraham super middleweight fight. It's going as I would expect: Dirrell is having his way with him. For me, the only question is whether Dirrell can stay away from Abraham's telegraphed big punches when they occasionally are thrown. And whether Dirrell learned from his loss to stay more active (and not fight in his opponent's back yard).

Once again, the Showtime crew is alarmingly pro-Abraham, with the marginal Antonio Tarver giving Abraham the 3rd despite Abraham taking the same constant tagging all round long, but landing a few punches. And down goes Abraham in the fourth! with 16 seconds left, Dirrell goes in for the kill, but he won't get it. Really nice to see, as I think Abraham was and is way over-rated. On my card, he was losing until he KO'd Jermaine Taylor in the closing seconds of that fight (notwithstanding the pro-Abraham crowd and call by Showtime).

Now the Showtime crew is minimizing the effect of the knockdown, calling it an off-balance issue. It looked rock solid to me: a straight punch right on the button. Dirrell has been taking Abraham apart because while Abraham is tough and can punch, he is slow compared to the elite level Dirrell. Dirrell only has to move his hands and stay alert and he cannot lose.

My card has every round so far for Dirrell with a two pointer in the 4th. The fifth goes his way, too, making it 50-44. Inexplicably, Steve Albert ridiculously intones that it is "shaping up to be a terrific fight" after Dirrell has basically been dominating Abraham wire to wire, excepting maybe three punches. Now Abraham grabs his crotch about 22 seconds in to the 6th and asks for time...the sign of a fighter who is looking for a way out. Finally, as the fight obviously is turning, Albert acknowledges that Abraham can be expected to turn dirty as he falls behind. They flash a telling stat on landed punches with 2 minutes left in the 6th: 47 punches landed for Abraham v. 153 for Dirrell. A blowout, not a terrific fight.

Abraham follows Dirrell around and takes punches all around his peekaboo guard. He's too slow relative to Dirrell to do much else. Another round for Dirrell. After six, it's 60-53.

Nice to see Dirrell moving his hands in the seventh, pounding under Abraham's elbows of that peekaboo guard. He can't let down. Abraham mounting zero offense now, halfway through. Abraham pushes/wrestles Dirrell down to the canvas and so the roughhouse tactics begin. Dirrell lights up Abraham in response. I can't help but think that if Abraham had landed the same punch, the Showtime crew would have howled! Dirrell knocks Abraham into the ropes to end the round and the ref rules it a slip? It looked like a knockdown to me and won't Showtime show that sequence again between rounds? they don't! why not??? That is simply poor television, Showtime.

As the eighth begins, a power punch stat is flashed: 166 for Dirrell v. 34 for Abraham. It's a walkover ,not a terrific fight. Dirrell is inviting Abraham in to tire him and seems to be rope-a doping Abraham! The ref breaks it up, warning Abraham for pushing and bulling. Albert says a warning by the ref "saved Dirrell"! What fight is this idiot watching? I have never before resorted to name-calling in appreciation for the pay television devotion to my love: boxing...but Albert is an incompetent. As if in answer, Dirrell dominates the remainder of the round. After 8 rounds, it's 80-71. On my card, Abraham has not won a single round and should probably have another 10-8 round.

Dirrell continues to move laterally and sting Abraham as blood pours from Abraham's right eye. Al Bernstein intones that Abraham hasn't ever been close to losing a fight, but I guess he wasn't actually at the Taylor fight. Oh wait, he WAS there. What is it with these guys' love affair with Abraham? Now with 1:21 left in the 9th and on the heels of Abraham being badly stunned by a straight right, Abraham grabs Dirrell under his arm and when I think the ref is about to take a point for it...he gives Abraham a minute-long breather to get his eye checked! It's bleeding badly and when Abraham finally catches his breath, they put time back in and the beating continues with Albert warning the viewing audience to "remember, Arthur Abraham is a very strong man" and that he could turn the fight around with one punch. Unreal.

Now they replay that a clash of heads opened the existing cut further and spend a full minute of the 10th talking about how Abraham could complain that he lost the fight because of a cut! Now Dirrell gets his feet caught up and goes down and Abraham goes wild trying to take him out afterward and the ref calls it a slip and the Showtime crew says they "can't believe it wasn't a knockdown"! So NOW they show it again THIS TIME...and lo and behold, it's the tripped up feet. I would however, give that as the first round for Abraham, making it 99-91 for Dirrell.

Dirrell did look a bit tired as Abraham desperately went nuts...and it is going as ever, and Abraham is DQ'D!!! for hitting Dirrell while he's down. Dirrell slipped and he went down near a corner and Abraham unquestionably leaned down and hit him with a big punch absolutely knocking Dirrell out. Dirrell is quivering on the canvas and absolutely out. The replay shows that Abraham unquestionably punched him while he was down and had to be bending down to do it. Dirrell was seated on the canvas when the punch was thrown.

Now, there is no question whatsoever that Abraham hit Dirrell while he was down, but the replay does seem to show Dirrell reacting to the punch, making me think that despite how far ahead he was in the fight, Dirrell kind of decided to go with the punch knowing he was already down and had been fouled and took an easy way out of what was becoming a much tougher late round fight. His reaction afterward would seem to support that too. The replay shows Dirrell raising his hand to his face after the punch, wincing...then tipping over and acting as if he'd been KO'd. Abraham says Dirrell is a "good actor", which shows he clearly thinks the punch didn't actually legitimately KO Dirrell.

Now the Showtime crew claims that Dirrell's incoherent response to the in-ring interview attempt of their notoriously obnoxious interviewer is proof that he needs medical attention and was knocked cold. I disagree. I think his corner, deliberaly creating a commotion and practically roughing him up because they know full well what he did, was egging on his performance. When he was directly asked, Dirrell knew that Abraham had been DQ'd for hitting him while he was down. Now Tarver intones that "we know how to beat Abraham"? Heck...Jermaine Taylor showed how to beat Abraham! He just did it in front of a wildly partisan crowd and Showtime crew that cheered Abraham's every twitch. Taylor lost because the fight was thirty seconds too long for him.

Now...it should be noted that Dirrell clearly won this fight. Also, Abraham clearly deserved to be DQ'd for hitting Dirrell while he was down. But another replay of the tenth round slip-ruling on Dirrell showed me that it was much more a punch than I thought at first viewing. It easily could have been called a knockdown. This, coupled with the fact that Dirrell seemed to be waning as Abraham (despite a shellacking all night long) did not, makes me think that Dirrell just took the expeditious way out. Feel a solid blow on your chin while you're down? fall over...you'll win the fight. Whether you're ahead or behind, that's true...and it's certainly easier than fighting out the last 5 minutes, possibly with cobwebs. That's boxing.