In the opening night of stage one of the “Super Six” tournament, two American challengers fell short as Arkansas’s Jermain Taylor (28-4, 17 KO’s) was brutally knocked out with seconds remaining in his 12 round fight with Armenian Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KO’s) and Michigan’s Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KO’s) lost a close decision to England’s Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KO’s).
Abraham, a former 160 pound titleholder, and Taylor, a former undisputed middleweight champion, fought on mostly even terms throughout the fight. Taylor began the fight strong peppering Abraham with his jab. However, he began to fade in the later rounds and Abraham came on strong.
In the 12th and final round and ahead on all three scorecards anyway, Abraham landed a flush right hand through the guard of Taylor that knocked him senseless. Official time of the TKO was 2:54 of the 12th round. There was just :06 seconds remaining in the fight prior to the stoppage.
The KO puts Abraham in 1st place amongst the standings currently in the Super 6 Tournament with 3 points.
Taylor has now lost 4 of his last 5 fights. ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael reported in an online chat that Taylor promoter Lou Dibella said Taylor has a severe concussion and will be hospitalized for several days for precautionary reasons. No decision has been made on the future of his involvement in the tournament.
In another opening round match-up, titleholder Carl Froch won a split decision over Andre Dirrell by scores of 115-112 (twice), while the other judge saw it 114-113 for Dirrell. 8countnews.com scored the fight even at 114-114.
The fight was filled with many close and difficult to score rounds. Dirrell was clearly quicker and was more effective counter punching, but Froch was successful turning the fight into a brawl at times. Both fighters got chippy with Dirrell often clinching close to Dirrell and Froch landing his fair share of rabbit punches.
Froch was able to pressure Dirrell around the ring for much of the early part of the fight. Dirrell was deducted a point in the 10th round for clinching.
Dirrell came on very strong late and had Froch hurt within the last two rounds. In the end it was not enough as Froch stays unbeaten and keeps his super middleweight title. Froch now resides second in the standings with 2 points.
The final fight of the opening round of the tournament takes place on November 21st when titleholder Mikkel Kessler (42-1, 32 KO’s) takes on hometown favorite Andre Ward (20-0, 13 KO’s) in Oakland.
The scheduled fights for the second round are Dirrell vs. Abraham, Kessler vs. Froch and Taylor vs. Ward.
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