Safe Side Of The Ropes

By: Andrew Harrison

Oct 15 2009

Category: andre dirrell, arthur abraham, bernard hopkins, carl froch, herbie hide, jean pascal, jermain taylor, kasim ouma, kelly pavlik, riddick bowe, winky wright

7 Comments

The most talked about event in boxing’s recent history blasts off this weekend, namely Showtime’s innovative Super Six tournament. Saturday evening features two bouts from the first round of three as firstly, Jermain Taylor tackles Arthur Abraham in Berlin before Carl Froch and Andre Dirrell butt heads in Froch’s home patch of Nottingham, England.

Safesideoftheropes will be in attendance at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham where fans will be treated to the Taylor-Abraham battle beamed live onto a big screen prior to the Froch-Dirrell encounter, scheduled for around 2pm UK time to accommodate the US audience.

Where to start then?

Abraham v Taylor-Conventional wisdom has decried that in both bouts, the US fighters Dirrell and Taylor, will race off into early leads before being surpassed over the final half of the fight by the tougher Europeans in Froch and Abraham. Hares and tortoises if you will.

In Dirrell’s case, most feel that he just doesn’t have enough miles on the clock to finish the race, whereas Taylor’s is quite the opposite. The former Olympian has lost three of his last four, two by crushing knockout. After a host of tough battles against the likes of Carl Froch, Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik and Winky Wright, quite what remains in the Arkansas man’s tank after knocking up his 28-3-1 (17) record remains to be seen.

His opponent, ‘King’ Arthur Abraham 30-0 (24) is a German based Armenian and former middleweight title holder. He is tough, game and powerful with a champion’s heart and will to win. He’ll look to cover up, block Taylor’s offence and then throw pineapples at ‘Bad Intentions’, Abraham really commits to his shots and will be swinging for the fences here. Taylor meanwhile will plan to box…box…and box some more, thudding home his sharp left jab and his powerful right hand.

Abraham, up at 168 for only the second time looks the smallest entrant in the competition and will have to rush his man in order to get his punches home. Taylor will look to keep him outside and tie him up along the ropes as Abraham throws combinations in close. I can see Taylor, the more experienced man and the guy who’s mixed in higher class doing very well here, I think he’ll take a lead with some classy boxing early before Abraham begins to charge him and get off with his short levers in close. Despite being troubled by the smaller and busier Kasim Ouma (a light middleweight) I think Taylor can hold his own in an action packed encounter.

Much will rely on Taylor’s oft discussed stamina issues, something he attributes to lax training habits although I’m not so sure about this. In reality, Taylor fights ‘tight’ with a very rigid stance. Despite his wealth of experience, it’s arguable whether he has yet learned to relax in the ring, causing him to fade down the stretch as he did against Pavlik (second time around) and of course Froch.

As much as I’m tempted to go with the underdog here, I’ll err on the side of caution and take him to last the distance yet come a cropper on the cards, perhaps controversially so.

Photo finish for the hare and the tortoise in this one.

Froch v Dirrell-Carl Froch always knew he was destined for big things, even when others (including yours truly) doubted him. Seemingly obsessed with Joe Calzaghe for the meat of his career, ‘The Cobra’ finally got a crack at a super middleweight title in December of last year and has never looked back. In an old fashioned, jaw hanging donnybrook, he battled current WBC light heavyweight champ, the Canadian Jean Pascal to a standstill, winning a unanimous decision.

Not content with one fight of the year nomination, he threw his cap into this year’s sweepstakes with that breathtaking last gasp win over Jermain Taylor in April where he successfully defended his WBC super middle belt he had won against Pascal. ‘The Cobra’ had arrived.

Here’s where it all gets a bit confusing. Froch (I’m utterly convinced of this) fancied himself as a sort of 168 lb version of Naseem Hamed, fleet of foot and possessing other worldly boxing skills. This was fine when he was belting out Polish window cleaners, hands down by his side and leading off with uppercuts and the like, however when the class level was ratcheted up in the Pascal and Taylor bouts there was a very definite bursting of this thought bubble…..POP….

Suddenly finding himself faced with quicker, classier and more technically adept fighters, realisation dawned that he was a very different boxer to the one he’d always imagined. Froch was now a relentless, tough and powerful banger who had to take a couple to get one in. Culture shock or what?

It shows the mark of the man that he overcame this perception alteration and triumphed in both bouts, however just how far he can go with this marauding and reckless style remains to be seen. Taylor looked to be well on his way to victory, especially after flattening the Notts man for the first time in his career in the third with a beautiful right hand and indeed the American was ahead with just a minute left in the fight.

Also, in both fights, Froch now 25-0 (20) looked nervous before the bell, it seemed there was an element of doubt hanging over him, it will be interesting to see if he has been bolstered by the Taylor triumph.

His opponent, Andre Dirrell 18-0 (13) from Flint, Michigan is the unknown quantity of the tournament and could find himself in over his head here in all honesty. Footage of his previous fights indicates a fluent switch-hitter, very quick with a nice jab and decent skills. His record looks very green however and indeed he has only fought past 8 rounds once, against former ‘Chin Checker’ Curtis Stevens.

Casting my eye over pre-fight head to head footage yesterday didn’t do anything to allay my fears for the prospect’s chances against Froch; I smell fear…..shovels loads of the stuff.

Of course a scared fighter is not necessarily beaten before the first bell and is still capable of great things, think Cassius Clay as he was then, fighting like quicksilver itself against the menacing Sonny Liston. That was fear fuelling the young Ali, plain and simple. I think Dirrell will come out flying and flail at Froch desperately, in fact he could look like the second coming……..for a round or two that is…..before Carl laces up his track shoes.

I’m reminded of Herbie Hide’s WBO heavyweight title defence against Riddick Bowe, Herbie, looking pertrified, fought like his life depended on it and dazzled for the first round or two. Slowly though, the lumbering Bowe reeled him in and very soon began to bounce him off the canvas (although the first knockdown was caused by a headbutt-watch the tapes) until Richard Steele called time on the six round drubbing.

I see a similar thing happening here.

Froch will be slower, more hittable and will no doubt drive me bananas standing square on and waving that damn left hand about aimlessly however he’ll be too strong, powerful, relentless and yes, seasoned for the young man.

The tortoise will catch up with the hare within eight.