Super Six World Boxing Classic – Andre Dirrell Vs. Carl Froch Play By Play
Dirrell’s camp came out waving US flags, but they were being booed anyway. Froch came out with a bit of a smile on his face for fighting in front of the home crowd.
R1
Not much happened in the first. Once Dirrell switched to south paw, Froch started going to the body and then Dirrell switched back. Dirrell’s hands are fast.
R2
Dirrell looked good in the second. He switched to south paw once and made Froch look slow. Dirrell landed a double left hook off of a wild lead left hook by Froch.
R3
Dirrell was caught against the ropes a few times and slipped away successfully once and laughed. But Froch made him pay the other times he tried to do it. Dirrell threw a nice lead left from his south paw stance, but took a shot while trying to run against the ropes.
R4
Dirrell looked good again. He landed some nice combinations and Froch had a hard time cutting the ring off. But it’s Dirrell who looks to have blood coming fro his nose.
R5
Froch did a little judo throw on Dirrell and put him to the ground, but it wasn’t a knockdown. Dirrell is fast and getting away, but you get this feeling that Froch is going to land a big shot soon.
R6
Froch was fighting a bit dirty out of frustration, but Dirrell is wasting a lot of energy playing into the shenanigans. He went down to a knee three times as if he’s trying to get a point taken away from Froch. He’s taunting Froch every time he makes him miss too. This is a superb cat and mouse game. If Dirrell wins this fight, I’m not sure he gets out of the arena alive. I’m kidding; I think.
R7
This thing is getting ugly. Dirrell continues to punch and grab onto Froch and Froch is just pushing him around and throwing on the break. Dirrell is doing goofy stuff like turning his head to complain to the ref. But he also threw the best shot of the round with a left hook that you couldn’t see because it was so quick. Both of their antics are a bit tiring, but Froch isn’t complaining about it while Dirrell is.
R8
That was an ugly round with the exception of one great shot by Froch, which was a wild left hook. Dirrell should’ve seen it coming. Lots of holding and clinching and rough housing in the round too.
R9
That was an interesting round. Froch dictated most of what happened in the round, but Dirrell caught him with some good counter shots. Froch was warned for hitting in the back of the head.
R10
The ref took a point away from Dirrell for holding on, but it seemed a bit mistimed considering that both guys were continuing their antics. However, for the most part, Froch has stopped hitting so blatantly in the back of the head. That point could be a determiner. But Dirrell rocked Froch a bit and made him wobble back against the ropes. He probably got that point back and at least scored a draw round.
R11
You get the feeling that Dirrell thinks he can win this thing. He made Froch look foolish at times with head movement. They’re both fighting tremendously hard right now. This has turned from an ugly fight, to a pretty good one.
R12
Neither guy closed the round like they wanted to. It was sloppy and near the end, Froch looked better as the aggressor. If Froch wins this fight, it could be because of the point taken, and that last round.
Winner: Carl Froch by way of split decision
Well, those scores were pretty interesting. I would’ve thought that all three cards would’ve been slightly closer.
In many ways Dirrell really impressed me, but in other ways he showed his inexperience.
I thought he would fall apart under pressure from Froch, but he didn’t at all. He showed tremendous athletic ability; excellent speed of hand and foot, fantastic head movement and stellar technical skills. He showed a lot of great attributes, and convinced me that he could…could be the division stand out.
HOWEVER, the sizable contingent of boxing fans that are screaming robbery are out of their mind. Just for the record, I scored the fight to Dirrell by 1 point. But I think he showed a naivety in the way he fought this fight. You do not win a world title fighting like that, especially not in front of a home town crowd. He never once imposed himself on the fight. Half of the rounds could have been decided by a flip of a coin, and guess what, the champion is going to get the benefit of the doubt in that situation.
Dirrell was throwing about 10-15 punches in some round on the back foot, and was constantly holding. You are not going to win no world title fighting that negatively. Even if Froch’s work wasn’t as clean, he was the one pressing the action and bullying Dirrell around the ring. That type of thing can influence judges when there are so few scoring shots. I think he also made a mistake by starting to complain and allowing himself to get irritated when the fight got rough. Froch just dug in and did his thing. Dirrell started mouthing off to the referee, and falling onto the canvas and so on. I think that sent out the wrong signs. He was giving off the impression that he was starting to unravel or Froch was getting to him. All these things can change the direction of a close fight.
With regard to the point deduction, I think the referee did a terrible job with handling the deduction, but it was overdue. Dirrell was holding excessively and spoiling. The ref should have made an issue of it far sooner. A lot of the rough stuff coming from Froch was in response to being held constantly and nothing being done about it.
Again, if you want the title, go out and impose yourself and win it because you are not going to steal rounds like that. As I said Andre showed a lot. I believed that he was the best of the American hopefuls, and I think he showed that here. I hope he uses this fight as a valuable learning experience, and next time out he will be much better. And that’s the great thing about this tournament, he can pick himself up, reevaluate, and get right back in there.
Im just waiting to hear a confirmed date and venue for Kessler vs Froch now. If it’s in Copenhagen as i expect it to be, I think i will have to be in attendance for that one.
I pretty much agree with everything you said.