The Abraham Vs. Dirrell Disqualification and More Unfortunate Events from the Weekend in Boxing

It was a crazy weekend in the world of boxing, most notably with the chaos and turmoil created during the Arthur Abraham vs. Andre Dirrell Super Six Tournament bout which ended in a disqualification win for Dirrell.

A quadruplet set of antagonists emerged during Saturday night's assorted affairs. Here are the wrongdoers from the weekend that was in boxing, and the transgressions that have placed them here in the dog house, or as the great hockey goalie turned announcer turned GM John Davidson would say, Chateau Bow Wow.

Arthur Abraham: Abraham lost his fight against Andre Dirrell via DQ when he nailed Dirrell with a crushing right hand that hit Dirrell as he was sitting on his knees unprotected. Dirrell had slipped on a sponsor's logo and lay sitting on the canvas against the ropes.

The punch from Abraham didn't just land late, it was thrown late and could have been prevented. He clearly saw a downed opponent and then cocked back, aimed and unleashed a huge power shot. It's an automatic disqualification situation, particularly when the fighter ends up twitching and unconscious on the canvas afterwards.

Compounding the issue is the fact that Abraham temerariously would not accept the defeat, calling Dirrell a good actor and saying he hadn't done anything wrong. Ironically, all of this coming from a fighter who looked to the referee for help on every occasion that a body punch so much as strayed anywhere close to below the border. It was an ugly incident and a worse reaction from a fighter desperately clamoring for American recognition and stardom.

Jim Gray: Gray has never been on my good side, and he reinforced that positioning with his behaviors as the in-ring announcer for Showtime following the Dirrell vs. Abraham bout. By all accounts Andre Dirrell was in hysterics, clearly displaying the symptoms of a brutal concussion. He did not seem to have much bearing on what was happening around him, and he should have been immediately escorted from the ring to a hospital. Instead, in saunters Jim Gray to try to conduct an interview... with a concussion victim in the midst of an emotional breakdown.

In the post-fight hustle and bustle, we see and hear Dirrell frantically shouting, exhorting those crowding around him "PLEASE stop talking to me!" The obvious move for Gray was then of course to shove his microphone into Dirrell's face and ask him about what happened. I wish Mike Tyson or James Toney had decked Gray as they often threatened to, and then shoved a microphone into his face, put him on national television and asked him all about it. Classy move, Mr. Gray.

Laurence Cole: Wrongdoer number 3 from the Dirrell vs. Abraham fiasco is referee Laurence Cole, a referee who continues to make his incompetence well known. What did Cole do wrong in the Abraham vs. Dirrell bout?

For starters, he twice calls Andre Direll, "Anthony", the name of his brother, a former boxer himself. In Round 7 he missed a knockdown call when Dirrell hit Abraham back into the ropes, and then in Round 10 he returned the favor by missing a knockdown call when Dirrell was felled by an Abraham punch. Then, when the punch heard round Motown was unleashed, Cole was seemingly halfway across the ring. I'm not saying if he had been in better position he could have prevented the transgression, but he had no chance to intervene standing where he was.

The laundry list of missteps committed by Cole is almost too long to list. He infamously told Juan Manuel Marquez that he was ahead on the scorecards during a bout after he had been cut. He miscalled a series of knockdowns in the first Manny Pacquiao vs. Marco Antonio Barrera match, he inappropriately asked ringside judges for advice on what caused a cut in a Juan Diaz bout... and on and on.

How in the hell has this guy not been demoted to 4-rounders and Toughman competitions? He reminds me of the bumbling casino staffer that Roberto DeNiro continually berates in the movie Casino. Sure enough, anytime there's a bumbling son running around landing big jobs, there's a powerful family backing him up. Dick Cole, his father, is also known as longtime Boxing Administrator for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

Joan Guzman: Guzman showed up for a lightweight bout 9 lbs overweight. Nine pounds overweight! That's showing nothing but a complete disregard for even attempting to get down to the appropriate weight limit. It's one thing for a boxer to show up gaunt and dried out at a weigh-in, physically unable to sweat off that last half pound because his body literally doesn't have it, and it's in a completely different world to show up 9 lbs overweight for a match.

Of course, Guzman won his bout, a rematch he didn't deserve against Ali Funeka. Why wouldn't he have won? He was fighting at "lightweight" while wielding the strength of a welterweight. He had plenty of energy to spare, because he certainly didn't over-train or struggle in the gym. Not to mention this was not the first time he pulled this kind of a stunt, begging the question why any promoter or matchmaker would line this guy up for a big fight period, let alone one at 135 lbs.

That's one crazy weekend in boxing, and four people who should be checking into Chateau Bow-Wow for an extended visit.