So The Massive Waste Of Talent Stepped In The Ring Last Night...

Andre Dirrell, I of course am talking about, who faced the almighty Michael Gbenga (14 - 6) and won an 8 round contest after not fighting in the whole of 2012. Hopefully we see more of him, haven't seen the fight but I can imagine what happened. Anyone see the fight for that matter?

So, few questions:

How much of a waste of talent is he?

Can he trouble the top men at 168?

Will he stop falling over every two seconds and stinking out arenas?

Is he Wards biggest threat talentwise?

Will I ever figure out what actually happened at the end of Lost?

Thoughts?

He does not have it upstairs. For some reason he suffers from some sort of mental problem, IMO. And it's not from getting hit in the face.

Link to the fight?

Been looking around for a link emore, could have watched it live last night but thought it wasn't worth it considering what it was and having work in the morning.

Even allthebestfights don't have it, but they have fights from that card so hopefully someone will up it to Youtube soon.

Also, Jose Luis Castilo fought the other night aswell, lost just about every round.

Coolio!

I see people calling Andre Dirrell the "biggest waste of talent" on here an awful lot... I would point towards his brother Anthony Dirrell being the better but more inactive fighter.

Anthony of course was arrested as a suspect of an armed bank robbery, suffering and then recovering from cancer, returned to the ring in 2008 after being given the all clear. Working his way up to WBC#1 Contender and then jumped off his motorcycle and was signed off for 6 months and has once again disappeared.

There's definately something off with these pair. But in terms of talent and ability, Anthony is leaps and bounds ahead of Andre Dirrell (and isn't afraid of fighting Andre Ward by any account either).

Anthony was in a pretty bad car crash if memory serves me around June and was rumoured to be out of the ring for a very long time, so I dont hold that against him and also ha some illness that kept him out for a year

School Project wrote:I see people calling Andre Dirrell the "biggest waste of talent" on here an awful lot... I would point towards his brother Anthony Dirrell being the better but more inactive fighter.

Depends what you mean by better?

Andre is by far the more talented of the two. Anthony is a bit of a hard case so that might make him better in some peoples eyes?

It's a bit like Wlad and Vitali. One is a cautious boxer, the other, more aggressive.

I think the reason Andre gets the coverage as boxing's great waste of talent is simply because we've seen that he can compete and win on the world level against tried and tested, top class fighters. Anthony may well be able to as well, but until he does his brother will rightly be talked up more.

Anyway, with regards to Andre Dirrell, he most definitely is a very fine talent physically and, if he can match that talent with some discipline and a more professional style, then he may just be the second best out there at 168 lb in another eighteen months time.

He should really have beaten Froch and, if he'd boxed every round the way he did from the tenth until the end, he'd have the world title that he's easily capable of. The problem is, he just doesn't seem to like it up him. I've said it before, but there's a difference between defence and simply not fighting, and in the middle stages against Froch I actually think that Dirrell's performance and antics were mildy embarrassing. Refusing to engage, turning his back, holding / spoiling at every opportunity, ducking below the waist, making Froch miss simply by virtue of actually being out of scoring range etc - you can't win world titles like that.

The fact that it was a neurological condition which has kept him out for so long leaves me with misgivings about whether he'll ever be able to overcome these demons he seems to have when it comes to sucking it up, as well.

He'll be thirty this year; not old, but not a young pup in the Super-Middleweight division either, so hopefully something will light a fire under his backside and he'll show us what he can do. As I said, if he has the hunger and applies himself properly, he'll casually stroll to a world title belt or two at 168 / 175 lb.

Huge waste of talent and have no time for him.

I think he could be easily top 3 in the division possibly just behind Ward but he appears to have no backbone.

We'll never know but I truly think he hasn't had any brain issues (can't spell that fancy word!) and simply took the easy way out against AA rather than fight the last 3 rounds.

Appears content now on fighting people way below his level which does nothing for his CV, rating or bank account.

An odd character and I don't have much time for him.

it would appear that having agreed to fight froch, abraham and ward within a year or so that Dirrell did have backbone.

now since one cowardly free punch from Abraham he hasnt been in the ring with anyone half decent in a couple of years. i feel sorry for the guy. he completely outboxed froch and abraham, who both resorted to fighting dirty against a guy they couldnt box. now he is painted as some sort of coward. he deserves much more respect. id like to see anyone take a free punch from abraham on their knees, and not get a little punch shy

Wouldn't say he was a massive waste of talent.......

But he needs to be more active....once your prime has gone it isn't coming back...

Ask Tony Tucker.......Tony Ayala jr

Lance wrote:it would appear that having agreed to fight froch, abraham and ward within a year or so that Dirrell did have backbone.

now since one cowardly free punch from Abraham he hasnt been in the ring with anyone half decent in a couple of years. i feel sorry for the guy. he completely outboxed froch and abraham, who both resorted to fighting dirty against a guy they couldnt box. now he is painted as some sort of coward. he deserves much more respect. id like to see anyone take a free punch from abraham on their knees, and not get a little punch shy

Erm, that's one way of putting it I guess...

Valero's Conscience wrote:Huge waste of talent and have no time for him.

I think he could be easily top 3 in the division possibly just behind Ward but he appears to have no backbone.

We'll never know but I truly think he hasn't had any brain issues (can't spell that fancy word!) and simply took the easy way out against AA rather than fight the last 3 rounds.

Appears content now on fighting people way below his level which does nothing for his CV, rating or bank account.

An odd character and I don't have much time for him.

I'm not sure about his issues after the fight but no way could he have continued against AA. Got caught big while he wasn't ready and that was a genuine knock out and DQ, no acting there. Abraham was frustrated from having to deal with some poor officiating and Dirrell constantly running if memory serves but still no excuse to level someone like that.

He didn't out box Froch, he lost.

Not sure how you can lose to Froch....

and be a massive talent..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Not sure how you can lose to Froch....

and be a massive talent..

You talk as if Froch is some middling contender. He's proven himself a world class fighter in the furnace of the most illustrious and challenging run of fights, stretching four years, that any Brit has undertaken in modern times.

Anyway, as to how a fighter can lose to Froch and still be a massive talent, I'd say it's because, if we're all brutally honest about it, Dirrell threw that fight away due to inexperience and his petulant side. He had the skills and style to beat Froch all ends up but went in to his shell when the going got tough in the middle rounds. Dirrell won his rounds pretty clearly - and with some seriously clean and impressive work - for the most part, but there were also numerous rounds which he spent spoiling, running like a rabbit and complaining to the referee, allowing Froch to take them simply on work rate, pressure and aggression, even if it wasn't particularly effective.

In the end, it was the point deduction (which was quite justified) which made the ultimate difference, for me. I had it six rounds apiece but, with that action taken by the referee, ended with a 114-113 score in Froch's favour.

Ironically, the referee would have done Dirrell a favour if he'd deducted the point a few rounds earlier; when the point was finally taken in the tenth, it actually forced Dirrell to put his foot down and snap in to action, and from that point onwards Froch hardly got a look in. Lest we forget, Dirrell remains one of only a couple of men who have seriously shaken Froch up and hurt him.

A Dirrell with his head properly screwed on would have run away with it against Froch that night. However, it wasn't, so he didn't. Annoys the hell out of me when I see that one described as a 'hometown decision' or a 'robbery' when it was nothing of the sort.

With regards to Hometown decision or robbery Chris - I think you sort of remember the impression you got rather than what you saw. Dirrell did show some flash and control at times - and thats all anyone remembers except you, Froch hater man.

So true, Shah. But please, just don't tell Herman Jaggery, I'm begging you.

I dont really know what the situation is with him. As lance says, signing up to the S6 with little top level experience and performin pretty credibly in his two fights in it suggests he wasnt averse to risk. Since his bizzare dq at the hands of Abraham though I really dont what the full story is. I dont really want to want to label him a waster when his reasons might be genuine.

Definitely have more sympathy with Abraham than I do with Dirrell for that fight. Pity AA never got to dish out comeuppance in a rematch like RJJ did v Griffin.