One thing which is annoying me, is the amount of Dirrell fans who are mentioning fighters like Mayweather, Whitaker and even Pep. There is a huge difference in how these guys fight. It takes immense skill to fight off the backfoot and outland an opponent. What Dirrell was not the same. He inexcusably ran, hugged and used any spoiling tactics he could to stop any momentum building. He didn't show any great skills just fast hands and a cowards heart. This was not a defensively good fight from him. He just ran and that is not good enough in world title fights. I hope Abraham knocks him out.
No-one's saying he's as skilled as those fighters; obviously, his means of avoiding confrontation is much more primitive and crude. The point is that avoiding confrontation is avoiding confrontation, no matter how you do it; and if you're going to condemn someone purely because they didn't come to fight, you'd have to condemn the likes of Pep, Mayweather etc. too.
Great post. I have been saying unlike the great defensive fighters where they actually throw punches on the back foot, Dirrell actually stop fighting and ran away. AA will not knock Dirrell out. That is not going to happen. Dirrell vs AA will be the most boring fight in the whole of Super Six. You'll just see Dirrell running and AA plodding after him. Dirrell will punch AA's gloves once or twice then run to the other side of the ring and repeat. I doubt there will be any punches landed by either fighter. Draw - zero punches landed. :rofl
I know one thing!!! Dirrell was never hurt in that fight and Froch was buzzed a couple times!!! You Froch fans have alot to say about Dirrell but not 1 of ya'll can say why Froch deserved to keep that title!!! Oh yea he land the cleaner punches with his face!!!
I didn’t see amazing abilities, I saw potential. He can move fast, but he didn’t use it to set up his attacks. Froch would miss him, Dirrell would step around him and then back off. He had chance after chance to drill Froch and failed to take any of them till late in the fight. Hopefully he learns that making your opponent miss is worthless if all you’re then doing is prancing away rather than punishing him. He proved later on that he could trade with Froch and could hurt him. Even when he knew he might lose the fight he still didn’t go after Froch in any meaningful way, hoping to steal a decision. It didn’t work out for him, but he’ll learn from it. The guy has the talent to be a really good boxer-puncher and needed a loss like this to realise he can do more. In answer to the TS’ original point: he’s not a defensive wizard – he’s got fast feet and good reflexes, but he doesn’t put punches together the way Pernell did and Floyd does. They would move on angles, slip punches and reply with sharp, fast combos. Dirrell should watch Whitaker to see how someone with fast feet and hands can control a fight without being the bigger puncher (though I think Dirrell was against Froch), and use their defence to set up their offence.
