Arthur Abraham became a favorite to win the Super Six based on his knockout victory over Jermain Taylor in the first stage. Andre Dirrell, on the other hand, lost a close decision to Carl Froch in the first round. Their fight opens up the second stage of the tournament.

Andre Ward took Dirrell while Alan Green took Abraham. Dirrell has the height and reach advantage.

R1
I didn’t expect Dirrell to look so much taller than Abraham. His arms and shoulders look bigger too. Abraham didn’t do much at all. He hid behind his peek-a-boo style, which Al Berstein called the turtle shell. Dirrell was active, though didn’t land much.

R2
Again, not a ton of scoring blows from Dirrell, and Abraham might’ve landed the cleanest shot of the round, but just based on activity, Dirrell wins the round again. Abraham looks like he’s trying to goad Dirrell into getting less cautious. To Dirrell’s credit, he’s standing right in front of him and throwing punches.

R3
Abraham landed a long loopy right hand that knocked Dirrell backwards. Abraham had a great flurry, but it was maybe 20 seconds out of the entire round.

R4
Abraham came in aggressively, and much like the shot he landed on Dirrell in the last round, Dirrell hit him flush while his gloves were down and he went down for the first time in his career. I think he expected to thrash on Dirrell and just left himself open. On the replay, you can tell that Abraham was off-balanced before going down.

R5
Abraham came back with a solid round. For whatever reason, he took about a minute off and just let Dirrell tee off on him. Again, he landed the cleaner shots, but Dirrell was just more active.

R6
Dirrell threw an early low blow that doubled over Abraham in pain. There was another instance in which Abraham thought he hit him low again and the ref just screamed at him not to worry about it. Jeez. Abraham looked good, but gave away the last minute of the round and Dirrell was making him miss badly.

R7
The fight turned a bit more aggressive with both guys. Dirrell went to the ground, but it was more of a clash of bodies than knockdown and it wasn’t called a knockdown. Then he pushed the aggressiveness and Dirrell was on his bicycle. The round ended with Dirrell landing a nasty left hook and Abraham landed awkwardly against the ropes. No knockdown was called, but it was another great shot.

R8
Strong round for Abraham as for whatever reason, Dirrell was fine with laying up against the ropes and letting Abraham unload on him. I’m not sure what landed, but it looked like dangerous territory.

R9
There’s a cut over Abraham’s right eye that was opened up a few rounds ago and is bleeding badly now. The ref stopped the fight to get the doctor to try and stop it. Abraham thought he was hit low again and started complaining. The ref didn’t stop the fight so Dirrell continued to go after him. Other than the cut, Abraham is looking ok. He’s just now having to stalk Dirrell and chase him, which isn’t necessarily his strength.

R10
Abraham landed a beautiful straight right and Dirrell went down, but the ref ruled it a slip. I think he saw Abraham step on his foot. He probably goes down anyway. Dirrell was on his horse for most of the round and it’s decidedly Abraham’s round.

R11
Wow. Dirrell slipped to his knees and Abraham threw an uppercut that knocked Dirrell out. He’s going to be disqualified.

Winner: Andre Dirrell by DQ

Dirrell either thinks he lost the fight or was bothered that he didn’t get to finish it as he’s pretty emotional in the ring. I’m not sure why Jim Gray is even interviewing Dirrell. He’s out on his feet.

Abraham says he didn’t agree with the disqualification. He says Dirrell is a good actor, not a good boxer. He should embrace the heel turn.