Dirrell vs. Abraham.... a breakdown

Andre Dirrell, Olympic bronze medalist from 2004, will face off with "King" Arthur Abraham tomorrow night in Joe Louis arena for round 2 of the Super Six Classic. This is a very intriguing fight, and lately I've been going back and forth a little bit. Dirrell seemed to grow up before our eyes between the first and second half of his fight against Carl Froch, sitting down on his punches, and looking less skittish on his feet. Arthur Abraham looked like Arthur Abraham, cutting off the ring, walking forward behind his gloves, and taking openings when the opponent gives them to him. This method works very well for him because of his wide strong body and his one punch KO power. Dirrell is lightning like a young Roy Jones, and might be slightly more polished as a boxer than Roy Jones was with his combination punching, and he's also a little more sneaky with the different looks he can give AA by his switching back and forth from southpaw.
A couple of things to not underestimate are Dirrell's power and AA's speed. AA showed adaptability and elusiveness when his jaw was broken against Edison Miranda, and he was able to slide shot in between Jermain Taylor's shots during their exchanges. Dirrell on the other hand was able to rock Carl Froch a couple of times when he finally decided to open up in their fight last September. I see AA however still having trouble with Dirrell's footspeed to begin the fight, and Dirrell still being nervous about exchanging with AA. AA is a much more polished boxer and definitely a harder puncher than Froch. AA's has shown some vulnerability to body shots and tends to walk straight into jabs, since his defense often blocks his full vision. Dirrell has shown a good straight power shot to the midsection, and this could be enough to keep the shorter AA at bay and prevent him from cutting the distance, cutting off the ring and going to work with his powerful hooks.
Question marks for this fight is how Dirrell's back is feeling. AA believes it was not because of his back but because of his mind, but either way Dirrell may not be 100% going into this fight. The other question of course is the fact that it's in Dirrell's house, Dirrell being from Flint, Michigan. How will AA adjust to fighting in the states for the first time when the crowd is against him? Is Dirrell ready to take an even bigger leap up mentally to a guy who fights like a rising tide?
This fight is pretty tough to call, I can see either an ugly Dirrell decision with a lot of potshots, movement, and tie-ups, or I can see AA making Dirrell submit from his punishing shots to the body and head. In the end, I gotta go with the more desperate Dirrell in front of the homecrowd, against the shorter, slower and methodical Arthur Abraham. Andre Dirrell by UD.

Part II: Some words for Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr.

Floyd: You've been undefeated, and for the most part, untouched, during your long and successful career. I only remember once during a post fight interview where your face even looked like you had been in a fight (Oscar). You are clearly one of the best and most talented fighters of our era. Your sense of timing, distance, and ability to rely on your counter punches and movement has made you an extremely effective and efficient boxer. I know that it is not just good luck and good genes that you have gotten this far. You are one of the hardest working fighters in the game. Even watching fights of you back when you were 18 you fought like a wiley vet, picking off shots, countering with clean shots to the body and head, mixing up your attack and patiently picking off your opponents as they came at you. You won your first major belt at the age of 21, against the man of the division Genaro Hernandez, and locked down that division by blowing out Angel Manfredy in your next fight and then obliterating Diego Corrales in probably the breakthrough fight of your career, with Diego being the tall lanky powerpuncher that many thought had a great chance of destroying you. At lightweight you showed the dog in you to stand 12 hard rounds with Jose Luis Castillo, and when people voiced their opinion that you lost (I thought he edged you on the scorecards as well), you gave him an immediate rematch and made your victory more clear in another close fight. To me you were haterproof at 130 and 135, but since then you've picked your opponents. I do not blame you for taking the belts from Judah and Baldomir, that makes good business sense, as does the fight at 154 with Oscar, but you could not have picked a worse time to retire. The welterweight division in 2008 was as hot as it had been in a couple of decades.

Of course I have to respect your personal reasons for retiring, but at the same time you must understand that this did not enhance and in fact probably diminished your legacy as a great. Since then, watching you interview is very painful for me, as someone who wants to see you achieve greatness pas 135 but hates the fact that you contradict yourself with every interview and talk to us the fans like we're fools. I know that you like to play the heel image, but I am sure to you it is much more important that we enjoy you as a fighter, than as a person. It is likely that I will never meet you, so I could care less how you are outside the ring, but I would like to see you apply and prove your skill inside the ring with the killer welters. I certainly respect the fact that you are taking on Shane Mosley after your fight with Pacquiao fell through, because Shane to me is more dangerous, but why fuel the image that you are afraid to face a tough opponent? Especially Manny Pacquiao who is the hottest product in the business right now? What better way to enhance your legacy and silence your critics than to convincingly beat Manny Pacquiao, which a lot of experts believed you would anyway? As corrupt and exploitative as boxing is as a business, I will never blame a fighter for trying to get the most money for least risk, but you're in a unique position, that is the riskiest fights are also the most profitable fights. I hope you recognize that, which you seem to be with the Shane Mosley fight, a fight you should win, and afterwards face Manny Pacquiao, or even go up to 154 and face Sergio Martinez and/or Paul Williams.

You have a great opportunity here Floyd. If you don't take advantage of it, I and many people like me, will forever give your legacy an Incomplete. You can obviously make money in other ways, with your ventures in the music business, and the fact that you, being articulate can get a job anywhere as a boxing commentator. Boxing is biggest but far from the only moneymaker for you. But you who for so long has claimed to be Sugar Ray Robinson's superior, the best boxer who ever lived, able to adapt to and defeat any situation you face, MUST rise up and prove this. It's not enough to talk about history, that's something for long retired boxers, you're still active and fairly young. Your legacy is still being built. You have proven before that you have the full package of skills and conditioning, you have to do it again. Society is one that always asks what have you done for it lately. If you are only going to rest on your past, then you are basically retiring yourself even though you are still officially and active fighter.

Remembering a legend that almost but never was...

The post on Floyd is coming, in the meantime, the 1984 US boxing team is the most celebrated Olympic team of all time, with 9 gold medals. Meldrick Taylor was the youngest, and probably the rawest, but certainly the most talented. Handspeed to blind you, footspeed to run circles around you, power enough to put you away if he was committed to doing so. This year is the 20th anniversary of his first fight with the Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez. Who'd have thought 2 seconds would carry so much infamy?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/bryan_armen_graham/03/17/meldrick.taylor/index.html

Very good SI article. I'm usually not impressed with their coverage of boxing, but this one had very good depth on Meldrick Taylor.

Edit: A link to the career highlights of Meldrick Taylor. Truly a supernova that ended up burning out too quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=porsK2f9emo

Part I: Some words for Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao

Manny: Congratulations on your latest win. You beat an immovable object in Joshua Clottey, a man who was not weight drained, had a good chin, taller, bigger, a shell of a defense, and good infighting skills. It was a decent consulation prize for those of us who wanted to see you take on a fresh opponent and wanted to see an underrated challenger like Clottey get a shot on the big stage against the biggest star in boxing. However I gotta say my friend, since the Miguel Cotto fight you have been disappointing me a little. This may be a hangover to the fact that like the rest of the world, I had been enthralled by your improvement, out of the ring personality, and the Taz devil mentality you fight with. Some of it's not your fault at all, it's your fans who will answer any boxing related question with "Manny's the GOAT", or "how dare you question" this that and the other about your boxing abilities or integrity outside the ring. BUT, I wish you had not dropped out of the Floyd fight for two reasons, one inside the ring and one outside the ring.

To start, we have not yet seen you go up against a slick defensive fighter who's able to move away from your attack. The last guy who comes remotely close to that that you fought was Juan Manuel Marquez, and there's an argument to be made that you have not yet beaten him in two fights. I believe you won the first because of that monster first round you had, but the second one I think he edged you man. I think you've improved enough to where now you would beat him, even if it was at 130 again, but it would still be a difficult fight. You had a couple of those guys calling your name, Joan Guzman and Nate Campbell, but your team ignored them. If you had fought and beaten Floyd, you would get no argument from me as being the best all around fighter since Shane Mosley was a lightweight. Now I understand Oscar, Hatton, and Cotto were the big money fights, so I don't blame you for taking those, but at the same time you need to tell your fans to chill on saying you're better than Sugar Ray Robinson or Henry Armstrong, cause your skillset and resume both fall way short of those two guys.

The outside the ring reason of course being the fact that they drummed up some ridiculous accusations that you're doping. I'm in the camp that says show me some solid evidence or witnesses and then I'll listen, but you have to realize that in the public eye you're guilty until innocent, and even if not, people are still going to talk about this issue until you make it go away with a random blood test protocol. If people are STILL gonna talk about it after, then you just gotta let it be, but not until you've done all in your power to quiet them.

This is not to say I don't acknowledge your greatness as a fighter. Definitely to go division hopping like you did and dominate some of the better fighters each division had to offer you have proven your ability and that you'd be a threat to beat anyone south of 154, but by doing that you have been able to avoid a lot of different styles without anyone calling you out on it. I know that you yourself are not afraid to face anyone as long as the negotiations line up right, but it doesn't change the fact that there's some guys out there that we would like to see you face.

Part II will have words for Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr.

Pacquiao-Clottey

Since it is fresh in my mind still, I will take some time to talk about this phenomenon known as Manny Pacquiao taking on the Ghanaian hardman Joshua Clottey. Unfortunately it went about the way I expected it to. Joshua Clottey came in with his force-field defense and seemed like an armored vehicle against the machine gun shots from Manny. The first half eight rounds of the fight was essentially Clottey blocking, and occasionally sliding a straight right hand or left uppercut between Manny's guard. Although from my observation Manny looked worse for wear after 6 rounds, breathing harder in the corner and showing more markings on his face. But the consensus was that Clottey was not winning a single round, although I felt like he was winning plenty of moments and exchanges. Clottey was his usual cautious self though he seemed especially defensive against Manny because he did not want to get caught with a "shot out of the sky" as Teddy Atlas would put it. Clottey blocked the majority of pacquiao's shots and made MP look vulnerable in a bunch of moments, but did put on a frustrating passive display when he needed to be exchanging. MP showed good strength and stamina to continue to hit a brick wall and opened Clottey up a little bit in the late rounds, though Clottey also pursued and hit MP cleanly more often late as well. The crowd cheered every punch Manny threw, and would go quiet when Clottey connected. The general consensus was that Manny won every round. I would have given Clottey the 2nd and 11th rounds, and maybe round 1 as well. Manny's star continues to rise with the conquest of another larger foe, this time a full fledged dangerous welterweight who's never been beaten without a question in any previous fight until this time. Manny won the crowd, though he did this before throwing a single punch, and he won the judges by keeping the compubox guys busy by going to work on Clottey's arms, shoulders, and gloves. Because Manny outthrew Clottey by so much, the punch trackers probably felt more obligated to try to count Manny's punches. It was clear to me though that Manny probably woke up more sore today than Clottey. That being said, Manny took this fight by outworking Clottey.

I need to take some time to talk about this phenomenon that is Manny Pacquiao. He is doing some great things by becoming a new Oscar De La Hoya, but to me, he is far from an all time great. There are those who will use his every passing win to say that he is a pound-for-pound all timer, but the body of work is too small. He has beaten guys of all the same style, coming forward or nothing moving away from him, and he has also, like Floyd, been selective of styles, the only difference being his selected opponents are bigger (although two of them Floyd had already beaten, so even then not really). Manny is fast, powerful, and mixes punches well, but we saw from Clottey that he does not have a good defense without simply burying his opponent in punches, and he does not pursue his opponents very well which he showed against a burnt out Cotto. With these kind of obvious flaws, I don't think you can put him above even a prime Sugar Shane Mosley. If Pacquiao had run into a prime Vernon Forrest, he would have lost by a wide decision too, same with Winky Wright, who is similar to Clottey but quicker and more active, and bigger.

Although I know why people are pushing this, is because boxing needs a real mainstream crossover star that people can hold us as the noble hero, especially in light of Floyd playing the (immature and spoiled) villain. People loooove to talk about how athletes are spoiled and how all they care about is money, and here comes a guy (Manny) who is all about the people, God, and honor. Forgive me if I call cow manure on that one. If Manny wasn't about money, he would not care about contract negotiations. If he was all about God, he would not refuse to take blood tests for the Mayweather fight out of fear of making him weak, since he would believe God would protect him, and if he was all about honor, he would honor his countrymen by not allowing critics to taint them as a country that provides PEDs, however ridiculous the accusations may seem. Manny is still a human who lets his personal pride and money steer this thinking and actions, and there is nothing unusual about that. In that way, he is more of an everyman than being someone who's seemingly indestructible and only cares about fighting for his people.

First post

At the behest of a friend, starting this blog will be my new way of pouring my energy into getting my thoughts out in writing about various topics. I believe this could be the start of something fun, fulfilling, and stimulating.