***The Official Andre "THE MATRIX" Dirrell Express!***

I'd say if Dawson was in this tournament he'd lose a total of 6 rounds tops.

 

Dirrell-Froch: It’s Going to Be a Bleak Day in Nottingham


By Scott Gilfoid: World Boxing Council super middleweight champion Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KO’s) will be starting off with one of the toughest draws in the Super Six tournament against American Andre Dirrell (18-0, 13 KO’s) on October 17th, in Nottingham, England.


Froch, 32, from Britain, is really counting on the Nottingham crowd making the place inhospitable for the visiting Dirrell. Froch thinks that Dirrell will be uncomfortable with the loud pro-Froch crowd and that it will eventually get to him. However, for that to happen, Froch is going to have to show much more than he did in his last fight against Jermain Taylor on April 24th.

Froch was knocked down in that fight and had to make a miracle comeback to win the fight in the last seconds with a knockout over the tired Taylor. Froch looked slow footed, with zero hand speed, not much in the way of power or boxing ability in that fight.

Just looking at that fight, I can see a lot of sad Nottingham boxing fans on October 17th, unless they’re fans of Dirrell. Froch was hit with pretty much everything but the kitchen sink by Taylor in that fight and if it hadn’t been for Taylor tiring out in the latter part of the bout, Froch very likely would have been beaten.

For Froch to be counting on crowd noise from his Nottingham fans seems a little desperate to me, like he doesn’t have confidence in his own boxing ability. I guess a fighter has to take a win any way he can get it, but I hope that Froch is putting all his hopes on Dirrell falling apart under the stress of the situation.

It might not happen. In that case, Froch is going to have to find a way to deal with Dirrell’s much better hand speed and equal power. I rate Dirrell’s power better than Froch, because Dirrell delivers his shots at high speed, making them hard to detect in flight.

This means that Froch will be getting hit with a lot of punches that he’ll never see until he’s hit with them. Dirrell won’t be standing in front of Froch like Taylor did, and it’s going to be tough for Froch to land much of anything in the fight unless Dirrell makes it easy for him. I doubt that though. Dirrell is going to stay on the move and make Froch earn whatever he can get in the fight.

Dirrell may not have been tested as of yet by a high quality fighter, but then again, Dirrell has looked exceptional against the best opponents that he’s faced in his career, easily beating the likes of Curtis Stevens, Victor Oganov, Anthony Hanshaw and Mike Paschall in 2008.

Hanshaw gave Roy Jones Jr. a lot of problems in their fight in 2007 before losing by a narrow 12 round decision. Dirrell totally dominated Hanshaw and defeated him by a 5th round TKO. Froch has fought Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor, and taken a great deal of punishment in both of the fights.

In the end, Froch’s huge heart pulled him out and allowed him to win. But Froch’s heart won’t be enough for him to beat Dirrell, who I’m afraid is going to make Froch look like a clumsy ox on October 17th. I see the fight as being interesting only that it will be matching two fighters with completely different styles and abilities. In one side you have the brilliant speed, defensive skills and movement of the American Dirrell, and on the other side, your have the slow of hand and foot Froch, who fights with his hands down by his waist and often uses his face to block punches.



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