Dirrell Gets Knocked Out While Down on the Canvas; Abraham DQ’d For the Punch
For about 9 rounds on Saturday evening, Andre Dirrell was showing that he could put all of his physical tools together for one evening to win a match against a top-ranked opponent, in this case the defending champion and Super Six counterpart Arthur Abraham. Finally in the 10th round Abraham was able to do some damage, but what resulted in the 11th round nobody could have predicted.
After slipping on the canvas in the corner, Dirrell was left in an awkward position against the ropes, but was clearly down on the canvas. Abraham swung a huge looping right hook that nailed Dirrell on his left cheek. Dirrell at first stunned at the prospect of being hit, then collapsed backward on the canvas unconscious, body twitching as he lay under the ropes.
Abraham was disqualified following the punch, as absolutely needed to happen given the severity of the foul and what was to transpire. Dirrell had been in control of the bout and held a substantial lead on the scorecards. In the fourth he had put Abraham down for the first time in his career, and he was able to dictate the bout with his speed, his movement and his work rate and combinations. As opposed to Jermain Taylor, Dirrell threw far more punches, threw a greater variety of punches and better applied an effective game plan to stymie the powerful attack of Abraham. But all of that is almost besides the point now.
While the fight was still in question and Abraham was looking at his best, Dirrell still looked to be on his way to victory, and of course deserved the chance to ride that out. As it stands, he receives 2 points in the Super Six tournament for the win over Abraham via disqualification. That immediately inserts him into a good position for reaching the next stages of the tournament, and lines up a very intriguing Stage 3 match against Andre Ward, the clear tournament favorite after this result.
However, following the foul and the stoppage of the bout, Dirrell was clearly in very bad shape. He was extremely disoriented, appeared to be displaying signs of a brutal concussion and believed he had been knocked out and lost the fight. He was rushed to the hospital after briefly hanging around the ring following the conclusion of the bout. That kind of concussion and that kind of knockout could potentially be a game-changer in the career of a boxer. Once concussions and knockouts have taken place, subsequently they generally transpire far easier. Not to mention the effects on the man’s confidence and psyche.
At the end of the night, the Abraham vs. Dirrell results show that Dirrell wins the bout via disqualification over Arthur Abraham. But there is far more to it than that, and the story will clearly continue to play out for some time. Stay tuned for more updates on the Dirrell vs. Abraham but, the aftereffects of this Super Six tournament match, the health of Andre Dirrell and much more, right here at ProBoxing-Fans.com.
