Anyone who thinks Dirrell needed to look for a way out, or that he would have necessarily gotten KOd last night, needs to revisit Adamek/Dawson. Chad was winning in a somewhat similar fashion (albeit even more easily) and then takes a HUGE right in the 10th round and goes down. He makes it up and is badly hurt, but he hangs on. He then comes back in the 11th and 12th with renewed focus and wins the bout without any additional trouble. Dawson was in far worse shape than Dirrell and is known to have stamina problems, whereas Dirrell's best moments against Froch happened late. We'll never know what would have happened in the final 4.5 minutes last night, but Abraham was probably right to feel desperate and likely staring at a clean, uncontroversial defeat. Guess he couldn't handle that prospect, so unfortunately he sullied his reputation by hitting a downed opponent. Too bad.
I agree except for stamina and power, but those are pretty significant factors. But Dawson definitely is a better defender, more intelligent boxer (at least as of Johnson II) and more technically complete. Dirrell is very good as well, though.
For starters Dawson > Dirrell in pretty much every aspect category. Dawson would also never lose to a guy like Froch. Also, Dawson was not "badly hurt" / "in far worse shape" lol, you need to rewatch that fight again sir. He got stunned and got dropped. It's not like his legs were gone or anything, he just maintained his composure and got back into the mix in that same minute. Lost that round for sure, round 11 was pretty much even but most gave it to Adamek due to sympathy, and round 12 was pretty equal as well but Dawson had the edge.
See my post above about Dawson vs. Dirrell. Dawson's stamina issues are well-established at this point, and Dirrell has to be considered a harder puncher. Dawson indeed was badly hurt. I didn't say he was out on his feet, but he clearly was dazed and forced to hold on. For the first time, he wasn't able to use his feet to dominate the fight. He was certainly more hurt than Dirrell was after he was dropped, yet he managed to hang on and win without controversy.
