Just rewatched Dirrell/Abraham, AA's corner advise and more

First, around round 6 his trainer started urging AA to throw the upper cut? Huh? I thought Dirrell was controlling the distance rather effectively so AA wasn't getting inside. Was this a translation issue and was this just a way of telling AA he needed to get inside?

Second. When AA had Dirrell on the ropes Andre slipped EVERY punch AA threw as far as I could tell. GREAT defensive work by Andre. Then AA held out his hand to try and pin Andre's head in position to land and the ref jumped in. No controversy there for me. Had AA gone to the body at this point, something his corner kept urging all night, he may have started to have some effect and lowered Andre's hands. But he didn't.

Andre's first KD was AA off balance after Dirrell pushed off with an elbow and had AA going backwards from that. The second one not called may well have been a cupping push down. The angle wasn't definitive. The KD that Arthur didn't get was probably a wrong call, but Andre would have benefited more from the 8 count rest than saving some points. AA jumped him after that and it was his best chance all night for the KO and he still couldn't get it.

Looking at AA's marked up face did tell the story of the fight pretty much as far as I can tell. There was no definitive shot showing the cut was a head butt. He had taken a punch just a split second before and I didn't actually think there was much of a butt. Really hard to say though.

The DQ was legit. Even if you think Andre over acted, he would have been in no position to continue the fight after 5 minutes. Overall, I think more partisan bickering than people watching what happened in the fight going on.

 

Thanks. Some of this stuff I thought I picked up the first time through but wanted to watch it again before saying anything.

I thought it might be time to actually discuss the fight.

 

In a TV interview Jack Loew was talking about the move to SMW once and said, "The chins are a little tougher to crack up there". Will we see an AA that needs to change his basic fight plan to stay at SMW? We might get a better idea against Froch because we know he WILL hit Froch. Also, he might find more people splitting his guard. Dirrell isn't known as a puncher and he was splitting it nicely at times. The guys are all going to be taller than what he is used to I think. The tall guys he fought at MW weren't punchers and all of the top SMW's are going to be taller than him.

 

Part of what they are doing now is damage control for the fan base I think. When he saw the replay I think you could tell that he knew he was in the wrong and there was just no way out of it.

 

Abraham did better in the end but Dirrell was going into 'victory' formation. People don't like it, but it is part of boxing. Andre was still putting on quite a defensive exhibition and I don't know that Abraham would have caught him. He was exposing himself more and more and Andre was still catching him a bit to slow him down some. Not as much as I would have liked, but some.

 

I suppose the folks telling us AA's boxing abilities are vastly under rated won't be around for a while now.

 

What was it like being in the crowd afterwards? It looks like it cleared out quickly. How long did it take for people to realize what was going on? I guess it had to be a mixed bag in terms of emotions?