The referee waived off the fight with only six seconds left in round twelve after Abraham's jackhammer straight right flattened Taylor. With the win Abraham earned three tournament points, two for the win and an extra notch on the ringpost for the knockout.
For most of the fight Abraham was his predictable, unpredictable self. By fighting behind his two-step, peek-a-boo stance, Abraham managed to avoid any serious punishment while delivering constant pressure. Without a discernible rhythm that Taylor could time for counterpunches, Abraham uncoiled with occasional flurries to the body and wide shots to the head, backing the Arkansas native up and wobbling him with a hard right in round six.
Taylor survived round six, but had lost any sense of momentum; his habit of dropping his left guard a welcome sight for Abraham, who slung rights over it at will.
A left hook in round twelve backed Taylor up and forced him to retreat for most of the round. When Taylor did come forward, with eleven seconds left in the fight, he leaned into Abraham's perfectly timed straight right.
Carl Froch Versus Andre Dirrell
Carl Froch won a split decision over Andre Dirrell in the second fight of Showtime's tournament doubleheader. One judge scored the fight 114-113 for Dirrell, while the other two saw a 115-112 decision for Froch.
It was a match up of Dirrell's speed versus Froch's awkward power. Often accused of being a poor man's Roy Jones Jr., Dirrell showed a champion's heart in the championship rounds, but Froch managed to get in better work in round twelve to take the win and the two tournament points that go with it.
At times, the fight was difficult to watch. Dirrell's loss of a point for holding in round ten capped off several rounds of hijinks that included rabbit punches and a perfectly executed hip toss from Froch that left Dirrell flat on his back. Dirrell had an obvious advantage in speed and accuracy over Froch, but the twenty six-year-old American too often stood in front of Froch for long periods, allowing the thirty two-year-old Brit to escape injury or land a punch of his own.
Although Jermain Taylor's loss doesn't force him out of the tournament, knowing that he was knocked out, again, has to weigh on his mind. Abraham went into the ring the favorite because Taylor had lost three of his last four fights, two by knockout. Taylor is now one for five since his first Kelly Pavlik fight, with three being short nights at the office. Tournament or no tournament, Taylor has some serious thinking to do.
Froch counted on Dirrell's inexperience to show itself, and it did, to a degree. But which fighter improved the most? Probably Dirrell. Given the parity in fighters, with Andre Ward and Mikkel Kessler rounding out the squad, going undefeated for the duration might be too much to ask. Although Froch won, Dirrell is probably the more worrisome challenge to the rest of the fighters in the tournament.
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