Dirrell was a coward when he fought me, says Cobra
Tuesday 19 May 2015 20:38, UK
Carl Froch beat Andre Dirrell four-and-a-half years ago and was not impressed. The Cobra thinks the American might be his own worst enemy when he faces James DeGale...
I've got to be honest, I haven't seen anything of him of late and it is hard to judge what we can expect from Andre Dirrell, but his mindset has had the wrong mentality.
He is very athletic, he is quite strong, he can punch a bit and is actually very talented but I just have a feeling the computer might not be working.
Dirrell just doesn't seem to want to push himself, which is something we saw from his brother Anthony a couple of weeks ago, when he lost his world title to Badou Jack.
I remember thinking, 'go on then, throw some punches, it's your world title on the line, show some enthusiasm', but he didn't.
And that is what we've had from Andre Dirrell before. When he came over here to fight me, people said he'd beaten me or it was a hometown decision. What a load of rubbish. He came over to the UK, he ran and he held and just didn't want to fight. You can't nick a world title, you've got to win it.
Andre Dirrell is very athletic, he is quite strong, he can punch a bit and is actually very talented but I just have a feeling the computer might not be working.
He and James DeGale are fighting for my old IBF title but when I fought for a vacant title, the WBC, against Jean Pascal, we both knew we had to go to war, to get hit for 12 rounds and have a fight.
I outworked him as well and won it fair and square. I walked out of there with the world title and was proud of it.
Dirrell, on the other hand, came over here with a bad attitude and it went wrong for him.
I bullied him and I pushed him around. He did actually catch me with a couple of shots in the 10th and proved he can bang a little bit, but he just wanted to nick it and go home.
I was motivated, I was the aggressor and that was what the judges saw. If Dirrell doesn't buck his ideas up and get his head right, DeGale will do a job on him, don't worry about that.
I wanted him to stand there and fight and, to be fair, I have heard he is doing that and is a bit more aggressive of late. He seems to be letting more shots go and he has to do that if he is going to beat DeGale and win that title.
He is athletic, he is tall and slim and has no trouble making the weight and as it's in America, he could well be the favourite.
But he just comes across to me as a coward. He's just not a very manly man, the way he ran and held against me and the way he seemed to throw himself on the floor against Arthur Abraham. I genuinely hope DeGale does a job on him.
Watch DeGale v Dirrell live on Sky Sports 1, from 8.00pm, this Saturday, with Carl Froch part of our team.
