Abraham eliminates Taylor; Froch & Dirrell eliminate themselves
By: Andrew Harrison
Category: andre dirrell, arthur abraham, carl froch, gary shaw, jean pascal, jermain taylor, john murray, mikkel kessler, tyson fury
| Aperture: | f/3.5 |
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| Focal Length: | 6.6mm |
| ISO: | 200 |
| Shutter: | 1/45 sec |
| Camera: | <Samsung NV3, Samsung VLUU NV3> |
I’m in a Shane Meadows zombie movie.
Trying to find a working toilet in Nottingham’s Trent FM Arena at 1 am, means navigating a course through a thousand and one inebriated punters, some of whom look as though they’re auditioning for a Mad Max remake.
The undercard is awful, so I’m people watching. I see the man who stepped on my foot at York Hall, Bethnal Green the other week sitting two rows away. An hour later he’s up in the ring ruining the debut of a local fighter by belting him out with a second round stoppage (I’m reliably informed later that his name is Matt Scriven).
I spot Jean Pascal with his missus and bother him for a handshake and a photo (it’s becoming a habit). He looks pleased he’s been recognised and after the flash goes off, others flock to him like vultures; he’s in his element now and rightly so. Tyson Fury spends hours pandering to fan’s requests for autographs and pics with a patience I’ve rarely seen in a sportsman, he’s earning new fans by the dozen.
The Abraham-Taylor fight plays out on the big screen and it’s an entertaining one, however you sense Taylor’s demise before it happens and when it does, it’s sickening. He goes down hard. Abraham looks awesome, I finally get his style. Kessler, sitting alongside Valuev at ringside looks impressed.
The mind numbing wait goes on. US coverage begins at 2 am and with nothing left to offer in the way of action, we take a ‘break’ at 1.20 am. The great unwashed go on drinking and it’s getting messy. Thanks to unclear seat numbers, arguments are springing up all over the venue. Punches are thrown and the Bobbies soon arrive en masse, dragging the perpetrators from the arena to cheers from the rest of us.
The promoters try to pacify fans by piping a selection of karaoke favourites over the loudspeaker. Delilah…..Alice……the Final Countdown (taking the biscuit with that one)……Hi Ho Silver Lining……it’s bad cabaret…..fans are gyrating all over each other. I briefly consider rejecting humanity and becoming a hermit when I get home.
After what has seemed like a lifetime (doors opened at 7.15 pm), Jimmy Lennon Jr. appears followed by Gary Shaw and a ubiquitous boxing face (whose name escapes me-help anyone?) who both proceed to antagonise the crowd, with US flag waving abound. Shaw is introduced to the familiar English football terrace rendition of ‘You Fat Bastard’. It’s entertaining stuff.
Dirrell arrives and looks confident, decked in green and with ‘USA’ stitched into the back of his shorts. He is promptly followed by the WBC title holder who’s shrouded sinisterly in a huge raven black robe which obscures his face.
The fight starts and there are nary a handful of shots thrown from either man, both feeling each other out with feints and dummy shots. Froch lands a few body shots and looks in control.A pattern is established; Dirrell wants nothing to do with Froch inside and skirts the outer ring as though a Sarlacc Pit exists towards the middle of it.
Froch looks more ungainly than ever and won’t or can’t throw his damn right. The American is here strictly to engage a boxing match and objects to any idea of a fight, he shows out to the ref, looks for the floor when Froch attacks and holds relentlessly. Dirrell later loses a point and looks in danger of being thrown out. He seems to buzz the home fighter badly in the tenth and for a brief second a shocker looks imminent however the champ kids his way to the bell and Dirrell’s chance has passed.
We limp to the finish and I have Froch up by two. Those around me see a shut out for their hero and start to head for the exits. When the split decision is announced, consternation permeates the arena, though thankfully the decision goes the right way and Nottingham Council won’t have an arena to rebuild on Monday morning.
We head into the cold Nottingham air at 3.30 am with a 125 mile journey to negotiate and the town centre now looks like a disaster movie (why does everything have to look like a bloody movie Andrew?). As we chug aimlessly around the city looking for our way out, BBC radio reports a closer fight than we thought it had been. More surprisingly, internet sites next day feature articles which claim that Dirrell was robbed. I know I should check the telecast to see why my perception differs so wildly but I can’t.
It wasn’t one to revisit, a horrible mismatch of styles. Dirrell ran like a rabbit, yet looked full of ability, if he can be more courageous he may do well. Froch looked awful and his chances of winning this thing look slimmer than they did before last night.
Over to Ward and Kessler.
6 comments on “Abraham eliminates Taylor; Froch & Dirrell eliminate themselves”
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LOL, funny stuff Haz. I had a feeling there’d be a spot of bother after what was an interminable delay. I can’t believe some on the forums are crying robbery. This is getting ridiculous. First Malignaggi/Diaz, now this? Note to the newbies, a close fight that could go either way is NOT a robbery!
Dirrell could have won it if he had stepped it up a notch like he did in the 10th and 11th, but he was just too damn negative for most of the way through. I’ve never really bought into the “take the title” theory, but when you get rounds where nothing of note happens (and there were PLENTY of them last night) then usually the judges give the benefit of the doubt to the champion, especially if he’s the one forcing the action.
I thought Froch was a worthy winner in the end. However, I don’t fancy his chances against Kessler. I hope he pulls through that one though. Have a bit of a soft spot for him. I find it strange that Calzaghe, who spent so much of his career at home defending his WBO title against undeserving mandatories and laughable voluntries, gets so much love and Froch, who has immediately shown a willingness to fight the very best, is much maligned.
Boxing fans are a strange lot at times. Btw, have you seen Froch’s girlfriend? Phwar!!!
First things first: Froch’s gf…..ha…..she looks a real title threat…..you should have seen Pascal’s though mate…..she took the pic which is why I’ve got that sackless look on my face!!
Back to more boring matters…..the fight….there are good judges (most of whom are American) who posted an almost shut out win for Dirrell…..I’m completely baffled, thought it must have been something with how the telecast looked but glad you saw it similar to how I did-thought I’d lost the plot. Froch was in control for most of the fight, Dirrell looked like he didn’t fancy a punch up when Carl refused to let him do his pretty dancing-at times his showing out was embarrassing.
On the LONG, COLD, DEPRESSING car ride home I was contemplating Froch’s last three wins, did Eubank and Benn manage to beat many of better class than Taylor, Pascal and Dirrell? He deserves more props.
I’m quietly confident of Ward’s chances, despite downsizing my bet from 50 clams to just 25, from the four fighting last night, only Abraham looks like a potential winner.
Does he fight Kessler in the first round. If so, I’m going. That would be one hell of a weekend!!
Yeah, I think Froch’s next fight is against Kessler and I believe its in Denmark.
Abraham is going to be on tough MF’r to beat. How the hell do you land punches on the guy? You could try and go behind the elbow but in doing that you risk getting tagged by his sledgehammer right. What a nightmare he must be to fight.
Dirrell I thought displayed some eye catching skills and his hand speed was dazzling, but he seemed to be too much of a fancy dan. Admittedly, Froch was guilty of some rough stuff, but Jesus it’s flippin’ fight, not a game of tiddly winks!
If someone’s trying to rough you up and the referee is too weak to deal with it, as was the case last night, then rough him back and show him you won’t be bullied. That’s how Mayweather dealt with Hatton’t rough house tactics and in the end it was HATTON who was crying about foul play.
That’s how fighters deal with things when the going gets tough and that’s why Dirrell, for all his natural athletic gifts, will fall well short of winning this tournament.
Don’t think Abraham meets Kessler in the 1st round btw. Think Kessler’s schedule is Ward, Froch and Taylor.
Maybe that’ll be the final then.
Remember when Eubank fought Rochigianni in Germany? He had a similar defence although he didn’t have Abraham’s firepower. Eubank was baffled trying to prise his way around it, he had to hammer the body but with AA being so squat it’s not easy (also the ref was on Taylor’s case immediately for low blows).
It’s weird how the American experts are complaining about Froch’s rough housing, didn’t we used to complain about US fighters brutalising our so called fancy dans?
LOL, yeah what goes around, comes around I suppose. The US scribes also savaged Hatton for his performance against Tszyu. It ain’t ballet folks!