No Holds Barred: Charles Farrell Reviews Abraham-Taylor, Froch-Dirrell, and Rachael Cordingley

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our colleague and correspondent Charles Farrell, the award-winning boxing writer and fight manager, about the somewhat disappointing first round of fights in the super middleweight tournament known as the World Boxing Classic, held Saturday, October 17.

In those fights, undefeated former middleweight titleholder Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) won with a brutal twelfth-round knockout of former undisputed middleweight world champion Jermain Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany, while WBC champion Carl Froch (26-0, 20 KOs) won an ugly split decision over previously unbeaten Andre Dirrell (18-1, 13 KOs) at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham, England.

We discussed these fights themselves; why Abraham emerged as the clear winner of all the fighters Saturday night; why the devastating knockout of Taylor, the third in his last five fights, should signal the end of his career as a boxer; how both Froch and Dirrell gave dismal performances, and the supposed controversy over the outcome of their fight; an evaluation of the next fight in this tournament, when Mikkel Kessler faces Andre Ward November 21 in Oakland, Calif., as well as the second and third rounds of this tournament; why, despite its less-than-inspiring start, the tournament could still be successful; how potential dropouts in the tournament could endanger it; why so many people remain so cynical and negative about everything in boxing, as happens in the last stages of a dying romantic relationship; and why so much of the boxing public is instead talking about Carl Froch's girlfriend, Rachael Cordingley.

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