Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham started the second round of the “Super Six” tournament in interesting fashion tonight from Detroit, Michigan.

From the start of round one Dirrell used his speed of hand and foot to dominate the fight. Abraham, a notoriously slow starter, used his peak a boo style defense to absorb many of Andre’s punches. Enough of those punches broke Abraham's guard to cause redness and swelling under his eyes.

In round four Dirrell caught an off balance Abraham to send him to the canvas for the first time in his career. Arthur not fazed by the knockdown easily made it out of the round. As in the early rounds Dirrell dominated in the middle rounds using his hand speed to keep the lackluster Abraham from firing punches.

The tenth round is when the fight really became interesting. Abraham bleeding from his right eye and desperate dropped Dirrell only to have it waved off by referee Laurence Cole, (I’ll get to Cole later). Though a bit shaken from the “knockdown” Dirrell made it out of the tenth round on steady legs. Knowing he needed a knockout to win the fight, Abraham came out hard in the 11th round finally showing offense. It would not be Abraham's much needed offense that would end the fight, it would be his clear frustration and desperation that would be the end. Dirrell slipped in the corner only to be knocked out cold by an Abraham punch. The replays clearly showed that Andre Dirrell was down when Abraham landed the ending blow forcing referee Laurence Cole to DQ Abraham giving Andre Dirrell the win.

Let me make this very clear. I have never been a fan of Laurence Cole as a referee and I know many others that feel the same way yet he continues to land high profile fights. Tonight on three separate occasions he showed complete incompetence. At the end of round six I believe Dirrell landed a hard blow that sent Abraham reeling to the ropes. As most boxing fans know, the ropes CAN NOT hold up a fighter. If they do it is considered a knockdown. Instead of calling it a knockdown for Dirrell Cole, Mr. Cole simply let the fighters go to their corners. The second poor decision by Cole came in the middle rounds. Abraham had finally trapped Dirrell in the corner and was unleashing punches. Cole, for reasons I’m not aware of, stopped the action and brought the fight back to the middle of the ring. The last and most embarrassing act of incompetence by Cole came in round ten. Abraham clearly floored Dirrell with a punch only to have Cole wave the knockdown off. I know referees make mistakes as they are only human but Cole seems to make a hell of a lot more than any of the other referees who find themselves in high profile fights. Maybe it's time for the powers to be (nepotism?) to start looking at Cole's track record. He needs some serious adjustments....