In the second installment in our “Super Six” series, Froch won a controversial unanimous decision over Andre Dirrell to retain his WBC super middleweight title. Even in defeat, Dirrell looked good, impressing in his losing effort and moving on confidently.
The second fight of the double-header took place in Nottingham England between
Carl the “Cobra” Froch (26-1, 20KO) and Andre the “Matrix” Dirrell (19-1, 13KO), for Froch’s WBC super middleweight title. The fight started off with Dirrell on his bike throwing mostly jabs in the opening stanza with Froch chasing him down trying to get something started. Through the first four rounds the “Matrix“ was busier landing lots of jabs and occasional one-twos, Froch didn’t land much through the first four rounds, which I thought they split, but did land big rights in round one and three.
It didn’t take long before Dirrell’s speed, movement, and unorthodox style to begin to frustrate Froch. By the fifth Andre wasn’t on his bike quite as much and while still moving began to land crisp one-two combos and a left to the body of Froch while making Carl chase and hit air. The middle rounds saw Dirrell moving well, landing jabs, combos, and good power punches. Carl was frustrated and being out-boxed, chasing Dirrell and landing sporadically with right-hands and left-hooks. Carl would land big punches here and there that would momentarily slow Andre but it was too far and few between, though it kept some of the rounds close enough to possibly persuade a couple of the judges to side with Froch.
There were rough house tactics and holding -rough housing by Froch and holding by Dirrell- all the way through and an annoyed Froch tossed Dirrell to the canvas in the fifth. In the tenth one point was deducted from Andre for holding which seemed unfair, especially with all the hitting on the back of Dirrell’s head while holding it down, and hitting on the breaks that Froch employed in the preceeding
rounds. How a point was not taken from Froch in this contest was unfathomable.
At the end of the tenth round Dirrell landed a left upstairs that rocked and hurt Froch’s granite chin but there were only seconds left in the round. Going into the twelfth round knowing it would be difficult to win on score cards in England, Dirrell’s corner told him too finish it but Andre didn’t press the action enough and ended up losing a controversial split decision. Allowing the “Cobra” to retain his WBC super middleweight belt and earn two points.
I clearly thought the “Matrix” won this fight, I scored it 115-112 in his favor. I believe the two judges who scored in Carl’s favor must have thought Dirrell moved too much and it also didn’t help that Dirrell kept holding and falling to the canvas so easily, ruled as trips, any time Froch got physical with him. Though Dirrell lost the fight, he surprised many and was impressive in his losing effort.