大象传媒

I had Dirrell by 5 rounds. It was his tactics throughout with Froch's gameplan nowhere to be seen. It is up to Froch to cut down the ring and make it a slugfest. He couldn't do it because he simply does not have enough skill to do so. Dirrell had a gameplan, stuck to it and executed it. It seems that the powers that be want a champion to entertain rather than to box and they got their wish.

I notice King Arthur got to fight in Germany at a decent time. It seems Froch is not a big enough name to warrant that yet. If he beats Kessler, we will proclaim him as the best in the World but, at the moment, we shall have to reserve judgement.

Horrible match to watch. As a neutral, in terms of Froch vs Dirrell, and after just having witnessed a very interesting fight between Abraham and Taylor, I think it鈥檚 safe to say that the 'second course' was quite a letdown. Both fighters鈥� shortcommings were on obvious display, but sometimes I guess a certain match-up just aint supposed to end in spectacular showcasing. Just like in most other sports, what on paper looks promising, sometimes result in opponents鈥� tactics cancelling each other out. Last night, Dirrell clearly wasnt going to stand and trade punches with Froch, who on the other hand tried to chase Dirrell in straight lines throwing too many missed punches when in fact his corner ought to have told him to try to cut the ring off better and perhaps throw about 30 pct less shots. I know, easy to say in the midst of battle - which is why I lay the 'blame' on Frochs corner. That being said - the reason why this fight turned as ugly as it actually did, I blame the ring referee. Seldom have I witnessed a more persona non grata in the ring. I am not talking about bias here - just that he let the fight evolve into the poor show without ever trying to actually get involved. Personally i think both fighters deserved two point deductions each, but more importantly, I think they both felt the lack of presence from this ring official and as a consequence, continued and amplifyed their poor tactics. The parody on show actually left me with a quite indifferent feeling towards the result announcement (which is quite a letdown as I have been looking forward to the start of the Super Six for months...). At least Taylor can hold his chin up in an excellent showing against Abraham (still had him behind on points going into the 12th), but I honestly feared that Taylor would have been outclassed by AA in a few rounds before tumbling. As it turned out, had he avoided that last perfect short right he would probably still have lost the fight narrowly on points but would have redeemed himself as a true contender in this tournament. Then AA's right landed, and now the talk is all about Taylor being replaced.

Sometimes all it takes is just one punch...

One final thought; really hope Ward vs. Kessler in November restores the hype and excitement to the Super Six Classic - both pre and after the match.

Having just watched both the Froch vs Dirrell and Abraham vs Taylor today without knowing the results, i was happy that Froch won, no matter how scappy or unexciting the fight was and actually quite surprised at how quickly Taylor faded and Abraham boxed in general.
I think that Dirrell will cause alot of problems in this tournament and maybe a shock or 2 if he hasn't mentally beaten himself up and driven his confidence away. Froch will still be there at the end but i now think that Abraham has the edge on all the others. Thats where my money's going, not even waiting for Kessler who i think is getting way to much credit for his defeat by Calzaghe.
I do love the idea of this tournament aswell, one at light heavyweight next followed by Welterweight please, well once Pacman has KO'D Cotto, outpointed Pretty boy Floyd and knocked out Marquez before retired a legend.
Haye inside 8 rounds by ref's stoppage!

I feel for Dirrel, i had the fight 117 1113 to Dirrell, I'm currently going through the stages for my boxing ref licence and have had no complaints about any scores i've written.
Dirrel landed the cleaner punches and more often, he made Carl look like a fighter from the dark ages, Dirrell was very slick its just a shame the scores we being written in favour of someone with no skill and who just punched thin air and arms all night, it just shows more than ever that all Froch has is a good chin, I'm sorry to say Kessler will take Carl to peices, Carl style is poor, his defence is a joke, his footwork is laughable, great chin tho.
I hope there are no more incorrect score cards in this super six, Froch should be on 0.

Well done Froch At last we are watching a tournament which involves top fighters and not matches which inviolve past it fighters that are 40 years old.

personally i had Froch up by a round, but i have not seen the fight on tv yet.

i was very disappointed with the evening itself though. the undercard was very poor which led to massive crowds in the arena concourses. This led to lots of drink being consumed, and then drunken scuffles between blokes and then police and steward intervention. Then expecting the crowd to sit for over an hour to wait for the main event with the only entertainment being Neil Diamonds Sweet Caroline and the like being played over the p.a. I think the germans are a lot better at entertainign the crowds, with things such as live bands.

i was very disappointed with the froch fans also, i don't recall a single chant aimed at Froch to get behind him. It seemed more of a Nottingham Forest fans get together, which is all well and good but the bloke behind me was chanting "you reds" and "we hate derby" all through the froch fight. Get behind the fighter for gods sake!!!

I hope the Haye fight in Nuremberg is a better affair, but if its not at least the beer comes in bigger glasses.

Regards

Dudley
The heir apparent to the Earl Of Chiswick

Ben, I note with some interest that you say the judges only agreed in 4 rounds and wondered if there was any chance you could provide a link to where we can actually see this information? Cheers

Personally, despite not being a massive fan of Froch himself, although a fan of British fighters, I am pleased Froch got the decision, and I believe it was the right decision.

Dirrell surprised me, I knew little about him other than youtube fights and these were discredited as poor opposition. I must say he was better than I expected with his speed and movement, he certainly looked the slicker boxer. But the judges got it right. It can not be healthy for boxing as a sport to be seen to reward cowardly boxers that do not want to engage but perfect the art of looking 鈥減retty鈥� for want of a better word in the ring.

Dirrell reminded me of mayweather to a certain degree. Evasive, quick, and doing all possible to avoid actually fighting. Which is odd when you consider what boxing is about. But this is where boxing divides opinion.

Personally, it may sound bias, but I prefer boxers to fight. I can understand and sympathise with the belief among fans that the styles of mayweather and perhaps dirrell in the froch fight in particular, are demonstrations of tactical genius and defensive brilliance. But for ever slick bit of footwork, slip of the head, and lightning pitter patter punches that look good on the eye, Dirrell done nothing to trouble froch other than make him look amateur at times. Froch didn鈥檛 have a scratch on him, and his gameplan struggled to take effect as his frustrations grew. Yet, you could see when the fighters got in close, and when Froch landed Dirrell was physically shook. He didn鈥檛 want to know, he didn鈥檛 want to be in there and kept looking to the ref for support. You cant expect to win a fight and claim to be one of the best in the world by avoiding getting engaged in a fight. Fans want to see fights. They want punches, knock outs, if it looks good all the better, they do not want to see someone running scared and being evasive the whole fight.

With regards to the punches to the back of the head, how does each fan view this issue? I would argue that if the opposing boxer is putting his head in that position, clearly trying to flout the rules to his advantage as there is no where else to punch. Mayweather infuriated me against Hatton with his elbows in the face, turning his back and ducking below the waste. This is not great defence, it is manipulating the laws of the game. This is gamesmanship to me, but others see it as genius defence.

You cant please all the people all the time, but for the sake of boxing be a spectacle of two fighters 鈥渁ctually fighting鈥�, the decision to Froch was the right one!

After reading your blog Ben I think you have hit most nails on the head regarding this matchup...
Last Saturday night was my friends 30th birthday... There were a few ideas being banded about as to what to do... Being a boxing fan from the West Country since birth, and there being a large group of lads up for dipping into their pockets for our friends 30th, we decided to go to offer our support to Carl Froch - to be completely honest I have never been a massive fan of Froch... The left hand by the knee guard and the old shoulder roll is the reserve of the incredible in my book...
Don't get me wrong... Im a positive fan of UK boxing... Froch is very good and we do not have too much UK to look at at the moment at Super Middleweight... but he's not incredible...
England vs America though... that had to be good...
Nope...
Froch should have, in my opinion tried to bring Dirrell on more... Dirrell was very much in his comfort zone all along... I noted one left hook from Dirrell connecting and that was pretty much it... if there was no title involved Direll would have just got it in my book... it was the right decision though... although neither of them deserved a win...
After a full 36 minutes I was left feeling completely and utterly shortchanged... and quite embarrassed about suggesting to several of my non boxing mates that if they have never seen a live boxing match then they are in for an absolute treat...
Nottingham ice rink is a shocking venue... the waiting around was ridiculous... no smoking area... 15 year old security guards saying dont do this... dont do that... stand there... do this... It was a disgrace...
The best punch I saw all night was about three rows in front of me... some young lad getting a good 30 or so body and head shots in on one of his mates before the coppers got to them and threw them out to the usual cheers and boos from the crowd...
Should've saved my money and gone to Disney on Ice... or did I?

I had the fight 114-114, although there were at least 4 rounds i felt could've gone either way. Dirrell came to steal the title from Froch, and you cannot expect a decision if you are only there to steal. He was not aggressive at all during the first 9 rounds, the emphasis of a title fight should be on the Contender to come and take the belt from the Champion. Dirrell should be credited for his speed and defensive qualities, however being evasive and throwing just a handful of shots a round is not going to win you a WBC Belt. Froch was slow and uncertain, and showed a lot of his weaknesses in this fight. When Dirrell finally started trading towards the end of the fight he looked to have the beating of Froch. Add to this that a bulked up Middleweight in Taylor put Froch down in April, I firmly believe Kessler will knock him out when they meet next year.

What an awful fight, i only hope the next round of fights is more exciting. Abraham UD over Dirrell, Kessler KO6 Froch. I have never seen Ward box so it would not be logical to predict a fight involving him.

Only just seen the fight because of a problem with Primetime, although I'd pre registered and ordered the fight, I wasn't able to watch it.
It was a poor fight and although Direll has a lot of skills, he looked very negative and defensive. Before I saw the fight, I'd heard people say that Carl Froch was outboxed, I didn't see it like that, other than the last couple of rounds. If you turn up to a fight with negative tactics like Dirrell, the judges tend not to like it, Froch was clearly the aggressor so I can understand why he was awarded the decision, but from what I've just seen it could have gone either way.
I like Carl Froch but he's going to need to improve dramatically to stand a chance of beating Kessler or stand a chance of winning the Super Six.

Carl Froch is yet another unskilled British slugger who is easy to hit and one dimensional. Kessler will knock Froch out in under 6 rounds, I am so tired of seeing boxers from Britain with no boxing skills. Dirrell won that fight by a mile with clean and effective punching, he was robbed and it smacks another nail in the coffin of corruption in boxing - no wonder people gravitate to MMA where decisions and fights are won and lost fairly.

For Dirrell to have won the fight, he would have actually had to do something! His dancing and weaving were impressive, he is clearly as slippery as a well oiled eel, but Froch was constantly going forward, on the attack and trying to make the fight. The only response Dirrell had was move away or spoil, there was little or no 'superior' boxing skill or classy combination counter punching coming back him that I saw, just the odd shot that never caused any problems. Thats not how you win a title fight with judges and rightly so.

Froch caught him with some good shots as well and dodged plenty of (very quick) shots from Dirrell...not bad for someone with no boxing skills...

It was close fight, was not one of Froch's best, but Dirrell did nothing to win it and the decision was correct. Kessler will be very tough but also a very different prospect...he will hit back for a start!

Abrahams looked good and has plenty of power but he is not exactly a dynamic fighter and is very in his square in movement...perfect for Froch in my opinion.

Here are Allan Green's thoughts on the fight:

As far as AndreDirrell and Carl Froch goes [Froch won a split decision], it was what I expected again. I expected Froch to win a decision. Dirrell is very talented and I think he depends on that a little too much. Once he learns how to settle down a little bit and really learns how to fight I think he'll be a beast.

BT: Do you think Dirrell won the fight?

AG: No. By no means. I had it 7-4 with one even [with the point deduction that would be 116-112 for Froch]. Anybody who thinks Dirrell won the fight should have their eyes checked. I like Andre, he's my boy, but you can't go over there with special effects that have no substance behind them. You can't throw a bunch of unmeaningful shots, land one and expect to win the fight. Yeah, that's how we won a lot of our amatuer fights, but this is professional boxing. Do I think he's capable of beating Froch? Yes. Did he do it the other night? No.


Source: www.boxingtalk.com

And I have to say that I agree with him.

For all those of the opinion that Dirrell was so slick in landing all these crisp counters...I beg you to go through the fight in detail and tell me when that happened, because all I saw was a smattering of weak jabs which Froch easily avoided. He honestly threw nothing of any note for ten rounds that I could see. If you can just give me the round and time on the clock of each of these combinations I've been hearing so much about, I'll happily go and get my eyes tested then watch the fight again while looking out for them.

I'm not saying that Froch looked anything other than poor himself, but at least he was doing something, albeit badly. Ten hooks that hit air and one jab that tickles the chin is better than two token jabs that are gloved away with contempt or stepped out of range of so easily that they could have been dodged by a child.

I like Froch, but going into the fight I worried for him - to the extent that I actually put my money where my mouth was and backed Dirrell to win by a decision. If I felt there were any genuine reason to feel aggrieved at the result, I'd loudly be expressing it, but I can see no earthly justification for the argument that Dirrell was a clear winner. There were some desperately poor rounds which barely deserved to have a winner either way so you can always make a case for either fighter there, but to see people saying that Dirrell was "robbed" or that this was corruption is just preposterous. Robbed is Lewis against Holyfield - this was just a bad fight which was hard to score.

The Brits are always complaining that American fighters are favored in the U.S.. It's a lot more complicated than that. A Mexican fighter in L.A. would be favored by the crowd over an African-American from Chicago. Pac Man is huge in Vegas and would probably have more crowd following than PBF and PBF is from Vegas. An Irish or Italian fighter on the east coast would be favored over a hispanic guy from Texas. A lot of times it also matters who your promoter is. A Puerto Rican in N.Y. etc. It's a big country with every ethnic group represented. There were a hell of a lot of Americans wanting Hatton to flatten PBF and shut his big mouth. If you're a foreign fighter that can put butts in the seats and generate pay-per-views there is more incentive for you to win than some 20-3 guy from Mississippi. I hope this shuts up the Brits with all this favoritism in the U.S. talk, because Froch getting the decision in his hometown and favored treatment from the ref was a joke.

I agree with #9. Nottingham Arena is a shocking venue for anything. I've seen boxing there, i've been to gigs there, i've even been to the odd trade show there. The place is a complete dump. It's impossible to get served in a decent enough time at any of the food/drink outlets, the security "guards" really do push their luck and are heading for a beating one of these days from someone, and it's so difficult to go for a smoke, nevermind go to the toilet! Awful arena. I've lived in the Derby/Notts area for years and years and can't think of anywhere other than football stadiums for big sporting events like boxing. But, have we got anyone who could fill a stadium? Even Forest or County's grounds?!?

With regard to the fight itself, I actually posted on Ben's pre-fight blog and warned people about how wiley Dirrell is and that he shouldn't underestimated. I've seen hundreds of bouts in my time, and was proved right once again. OK Dirrell lost, but if he boxed in 1-9 like he did in 10-12, he would have won it easily. Maybe even with a KO.

I don't understand why Froch is moaning about Dirrell's fighting style. Just because Dirrell was quick around the ring and light on his feet doesn't mean he had a poor style! He's hardly going to just stand infront of Froch and wait to get hit is he. Boxing is all about movement. Moving into a position to hit your opponent, and moving into a position to avoid getting hit. Just look at the great Muhammad Ali for a masterclass in how to move round the ring. And look at Mayweather too. He's perfected the art of quick feet and only punching when you need to, thereby conserving energy.

Froch does need to improve big time, otherwise Kessler will put him down! Quickly and violently.

While I definitely agree with all of you who were unhappy at the way the Froch-Direll fight evolved, I feel the need to remind you that Froch did win that one and that it was not that easy to do it.
Sure, we all want to see the kind of KO he inflicted on Taylor 5 months ago but boxing is not only about KO.
Direll made it a lot harder to happen as his style was fully turned in a defensive display mode.
I am not blaming him, though.
What would you do if you were in the ring with someone much more powerful than you? you just don't stand and trade, that's suicidal.
I am not saying I have enjoyed the fight because I clearly didn't. But we can't expect every fight to be spectacular, that's boxing.
As for Abraham, congratulations, he is very strong too, a favorite alongside Kessler to win the super six. At least, in my view.
I also felt sorry for Taylor who gave everything and left with nothing but his pride intact after a courageous fight.
I hope the Kessler-Ward fight will be one of a high standard.

i have backed froch since before going into this tournament. after looking pretty basic in the taylor fight (apart from the final round) i fully expected carl to come out with a new slant to his limited skill set and cut the ring off. watching the fight was frustrating, as it seemed all froch had to do was keep his hands up and move into dirrells range before throwing some bombs. instead he tried to throw from long distances and was made to miss wildly. i really wanted him to catch dirrell and spark him, but dirrell fought a very good fight. when all is said and done, it doesn't matter that he was the challenger and froch the champ; anyone with half a boxing brain could see dirrell outclassed froch for much of the fight and was ahead at least by a point or 2 by the end. maybe he was too negative so i wont shout 'robbery' but for alot of that fight carl looked like he just doesnt belong in there against 'boxers'. however, im glad he scraped a decision and lives to fight another day as champ. if he doesnt address his shortcomings properly by the kessler fight though, he will be pummelled. make no bones about it kessler will want to fight and i dont think carl's chin can stand too many of those piston like combinations from the dane. come on carl, get a bit of savvy in your game and silence the doubters! it's fully do-able.

and let's also not forget; it was dirrell who appeared to have froch in trouble, twice was it? i dont remember carl landing anything that visibly shook dirrell.

The whole night was a total RIP OFF in terms of entertainment and value. Carl and Mike Hennessy should be ashamed to be taking money off of hard working people like myself for such a shabby poorly organised show.

You can always get a poor fight, I accept that but a poor bill and a total disregard for the paying public nearly backfired as the best punches of the night were in fact landed in the crowd! The tension was there for all to feel and it was lucky that total affray didn't break out. Putting the show on at such a late hour was always going to be risky but to leave eight thousand people in an arena with no entertainment for hours after many had clearly been drinking whilst out watching the earlier Forest match was stupidity.

I for one will not be attending a 'super' six fight again as there was nothing super and my eight friends who were with me agreed. We will however be attending the next Rendall Munroe fight in Nottingham where the undercard will no doudt be excellent and the event well organised. Mike Hennessy TAKE NOTE!!

I scored it 117-111 in favour of Dirrell. On my website, I asked, before the fight, who would win and 70% said Froch by stoppage. Afterwards, I asked, who had won and 67% said Dirrell (34 votes) with 34% (20 votes) for a Froch win.

Froch is one of the worst boxers I have seen, if you can even call him a boxer. He has no skills whatsoever. It's a good job he has a good chin and Dirrell ran most of the night cos if he had come up against a better opponent, like Kessler for instance he'd have been well beaten.

I watched him against Taylor and he was soooo lucky it's unreal. His hands are always low, his punches lazy and laboured and has little stamina.

I can't believe people turned up expecting anything better than a pub brawl.

The Froch v Dirrell bout was no where near as bad as some are making out, no it wasn't particularly great but it wasn't a dire embarrassment either.
Froch certainly deserved the win as no matter how fancy Dirrells footwork and movement was, he landed nothing stronger than any bouncer could, at least a few of Frochs punches shook his opponent.

Abraham v Taylor was a different matter, yes Abraham would have won comfortably even without the KO, but at least his opponent landed some meaningful punches.

Abraham seems a class apart from the other 5 boxers and unless Kessler, or maybe one of the others ups their game massively, or gets that lucky/killer punch, there will be only one winner.

Watched the fight last night, thought Froch was very lucky. The Yank was quick, too quick for Froch. He had more bite in his punch and looked virtually unscathed and far more dangerous at the end. I don't understand why Dirrell was so negative. If he'd gotten at Froch I believe he would've won at a canter.
As for Froch he looked clumsy and was out boxed on the night. A very difficult and frustrating opponent and one he never got to grips with. He looked far too cumbersome and as a result never looked like landing a decent shot. Still he won and let's hope he learns a thing or too from this.

Froch is an imposter, he struggled against a past it fighter (Taylor) on an awful fight.
Now the man goes and bores us to death against a fighter I had winning by 2-3 rounds.
Froch is in serious danger of inheriting the "most awful fighter to watch" title vacated by Audley Harrison when he stopped boxing (more pawing and running but you get the picture).
Boxing is an entertainment business, no entertainment means no bums on seats and certainly no TV interest and no money.
Get it sorted Carl Froch.

I'm no boxing expert, but I like to watch as much as I can, and I felt this match-up was a gripping encounter. It was certainly a close one, as the split decision indicated, but I think it's doing a diservice to Dirrel to discount his ultradefensive, countering style. I'm a football man, and to draw an analogy, your team can defend, defend, defend for their lives, then streak up to the other end and nick a goal in the dying seconds. But a true appreciation of the beautiful game should merit the defensive qualities on show, much as they afford to many sports in the States. Of course, in this sport things are more clear cut - a goal better than the oppo wins. In boxing, a draw doesn't really exist, so the outcome is often subjective.

I think the problem that Dirrell had was that he never looked likely to nick that goal (i.e. land the knockout blow). So all the superior ring skills that he displayed counted for nothing, because to me, there was only one man trying to win that match, and that was Froch.

Nonetheless, I thought it made for good viewing, and I'd have been happy with a score draw!

I'me not a big fan of boxing taking in the occassional bout. The decision in the Froch fight is hardly surprising, a close contest definetely but we have to remember Froch is the champion fighting in front of his home crowd. We have to ask did the challenger do enough to rip the belt away? Imo a champion at home starts the fight one round ahead. For a challenger to fight in the champions backyard he not only has to win but win convincingly, so imo although Dirrell has lots of ability and speed in all honesty i dont think he done enough in this fight. But i believe had Dirrell been champion he might just have got the vote from the judges. Does Froch have what it takes to be talked about in the same breath as Calzaghe? Imo he has the power but the boxing skill strangely enough shown by Dirrell only time will tell.

Scrappy fight....... I scored it 114 - 114... Froch was lucky to keep title. Only the point deduction in my opinion saved him from losing it....

RE: Stavrosian

Round 10 from 2. 10 into the round...Dirrell Staggered Froch.

Round 11 first minute...pushed Froch back again with a couple of uppercuts.

One of them two rounds also...he dodged about a 12 punch combo by Froch that made Carl look ridiculously amateurish.

As far as the whole fight is concerned I had it 7-5 Dirrell, with the point deduction (which was very odd I though, at that moment in the fight anyhow) I had Dirrell by a point. So it coulda gone either way.

Sfter the point deduction when Dirrell decided to stand pat and trade he came out on top, like Gary Shaw said... maybe he shoulda done that from the start.

Definitely a close fight and hard to score. Watched the fight live on TV and had Dirrell winning by a couple. I rewatched the fight a few days later and gave it to Froch by one. I think I was initially mesmorized by Dirrell's footwork particularly his ability to slip away when cornered. Froch hit a lot of thin air and again made Dirrell's reflexes look superb. All in all a draw would have been a fair result. Opening couple of rounds were even, then Dirrell was better 3-5, Froch was superior 6-10 with Direll winning the 11th and the 12th being close.

Sounds like it was a hard nights work in the media pit, made to hang around for hours and then having to endure the collective moaning of a pack of boxing journalists unable to have a smoke, must have been tough. It would bring a tear to a coal pit minors eye.

Regardless of Dirrell, Froch looked poor as the defending champion on home turf. He's very robotic in his movement, he swings and misses frequently, has no head movement and seems intent in planting his feet and engaging at all costs. In my opinion, a World Champion should bring more to the table than a good chin and power. Some ringcraft would be nice. Dirrell went to far the other way, he was too negative, but anyone could see he was the more skilled of the two. Froch won't last long if that's his masterplan, he'll have a short career and go down all guns blazing, on his shield.