ANDRE DIRRELL DQ11 ARTHUR ABRAHAM

What a pity that a compelling fight building towards a cliffhanger finish was marred by Arthur Abraham landing a blatantly illegal blow against Andre Dirrell on Saturday night in Detroit.

This second-stage bout in the Showtime super middleweight tournament saw the underdog Dirrell outboxing and outclassing Abraham for much of the fight only to falter in the home straight.

It looked like being a race to the finish line for Dirrell when he slipped to the canvas in the 11th round and Abraham landed the right hand that brought instant — and deserved — disqualification for the German fighter.

Abraham asserted that Dirrell was acting as the boxer from Flint, MI, lay stretched out on the canvas. It looked to me as if Dirrell had been knocked out of the fight by the punch. He was hit by a hard blow when he wasn’t looking. That combination usually spells disorientation.

There will be debate over whether a tiring Dirrell, the proverbial mile in front on points, could have made it to the final bell. It would have been high anxiety, but I think that Dirrell would have just about weathered Abraham’s late charge.

The end came after 63 seconds of the 11th and Dirrell had surely been winning the round up to that point although Abraham was closing in fast. Dirrell, though, seemed to have largely pulled himself together after surviving a stormy 10th round. Abraham has shown he can knock out an opponent late in a fight, but it is very difficult to stop a boxer who knows he has only to stay on his feet to win. The hunter often becomes desperate while the hunted does everything to stay in the fight, moving, dodging, grabbing and backpedalling, always on the lookout for his opponent's intended blockbusters.

Boxers who have salvaged fights with last-round knockouts have usually done so when their opponent has been steadily broken down over the course of several rounds (Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor; Carl Froch-Jermain Taylor; Jeff Harding-Dennis Andries) or when they manage to land a big punch that their opponent didn’t see coming (Mike Weaver-John Tate; Jake LaMotta-Laurent Dauthuille).

Dirrell, nose bloodied, was feeling the pace and no doubt the final bell would have had a rhapsodic sound to him, but I think he would most likely have got there. He had not been punished to the point where he was unable to move around the ring, and his senses were on red alert. Abraham might have hit him with a haymaker, of course, but in his frustration, well behind in the scoring and cut over the right eye, it was as if he couldn’t help himself from throwing the errant right hand when he finally had Dirrell squarely in his sights — which, unfortunately for him, was when his opponent was on the canvas.

The disappointing ending deprived fans of witnessing a final few minutes of intense drama, but referee Laurence Cole did the right and proper thing by turfing out Abraham and I was glad to see him take firm and immediate action.

Dirrell had boxed above most expectations, not only proving to be elusive but often standing his ground and firing hard punches from both the southpaw and orthodox positions. An upset looked on the cards from the first round, and when Abraham went down for the first time in his career — caught off-balance by a left hand from the southpaw posture, but legitimately dropped nonetheless — in the fourth round it became clear that his undefeated record was in grave jeopardy.

A puncher such as Abraham is never out of a fight, though, until the final bell has rung — but in his vexation and desperation he threw the punch that deprived him of any chance he may have had of scoring what would have been one of boxing’s most celebrated come-from-behind victories.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP

I was able to see most of the weekend’s bouts with results unknown, thanks to trusty video recorders.

One of the highlights was Erik Morales showing surprisingly good firm after being inactive for nearly three years to win a unanimous decision over Jose Alfaro in their welterweight 12-rounder in Monterrey, Mexico. Morales showed good movement and an excellent jab but Alfaro was tough, game and dangerous and he never stopped trying despite being cut over the right eye in the fifth round. It was a clear win for Morales but hard-earned and there were times when I thought that Alfaro was coming on strongly. Morales’s great experience, superior skill and, of course, his fighting heart saw him through, but the fight was a gruelling struggle and I can’t see this comeback going very far,

Steve Molitor outboxed and outsmarted Takalani Ndlovu in their rematch for the vacant IBF junior featherweight title at Casino Rama, north of Toronto. I couldn’t agree with the TSN commentary that had Molitor winning just one of the first six rounds. Ndlovu fought better than he had done in his first meeting with Molitor, but, for me, the “Canadian Kid” had his nose in front all the way.

Coming in nine pounds over the lightweight limit greatly helped Joan Guzman in his rematch with Ali Funeka on HBO from Las Vegas. Guzman was much better able to absorb Funeka’s punches, while his own blows were significantly heavier than they had been in his first fight with Funeka in Quebec City. Funeka was busy, though, and if Guzman hadn’t scored that sixth-round knockdown the rematch would have ended up as a draw just like the initial meeting.

Marcos Maidana can be considered one of the game’s most exciting fighters. His 140-pound title defence against Victor Cayo was the Argentinean’s second HBO thriller in a row. He can be wild with his big hooks and right hands, and Maidana isn’t hard to find with punches, but his power and pressure will be too much for all but the elite-level junior welters and I thought he was on his way to overpowering Cayo before his right-hand drive to the body put the capable challenger from the Dominican Republic down for the count in the sixth.