Yerevan

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? I repeat, will the real Slim Shady please stand up! Not you Eminem, we are talking about Detroit’s other shady one, Andre Dirrell – who in a span of one week, has weaseled his way out of a showdown versus King Arthur Abraham in Los Angeles.

Thanks to the Flint, Michigan native, the parameters of the Abraham vs. Dirrell fight have undergone a 180 degree turn and two seismic shifts that were intentionally devised to work against Abraham’s favor.

It was announced over the weekend that the fight will be taking place at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit– just an hour’s drive away from Dirrell’s Flint hometown.

File this one under the bureaucratic bullspit from Dirrell and promoter Gary Shaw, who in eight days, executed a plan to rally around the much inferior product he shamefully promotes.

You can label the latest news as a conspiracy theory to milk every single dollar out of this fight while at the same time manipulating the advantage to Dirrell’s favor or just drink down these ice-cold, hard facts and decide for yourself if the red flags are really flags, or just a 2,000 mile stretch of carpet headed east to The Motor City…

Just last week, the fight was postponed from March 6 to March 27 after Dirrell revealed he had a back ‘injury,’ one of which the severity was never discussed or detailed.

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve hurt my back, there was no way I could look through a crystal ball or collect call Miss Cleo to realize the severity of such an impingement. On the other hand, Dirrell & Company realized in record time – 15 hours to be exact – that all he needed was an additional three extra weeks to take care of his ‘faulty’ back.

Skepticism was raised by Ulli Wegner, Abraham’s trainer, when he called into question Dirrell’s injured back. He said:

“How can Dirrell already know that he’ll be fit a 100 percent come March 27? When someone gets injured, he can’t really call the date of being healthy again. Camp Dirrell just wants to play mind games with us, but this won’t give them any advantage.”

Abraham told Yerevan Magazine that he’s disappointed he will not be fighting in front of his loyal Armenian fans in Los Angeles, but added that he wouldn’t let the pre-fight mind games alter his ultimate goal of pounding Dirrell in the ring.

“Dirrell and Gary Shaw are trying to pull a fast one, but this is not going to affect me in my preparation of demolishing Dirrell,” he said. “They’re just delaying the inevitable.”

The postponement alters Arthur’s regimen heading into the fight as he was already in the deep stages of preparing his body for the 12 round match. He boarded a plane Sunday night back to Berlin because Wegner has the obligations of training another boxer for a fight next week in Germany.

If Shaw had these pre-emptive strikes determined long ago, Dirrell and his training team were in on it too and trained according to March 27 and not the 6th – a substantial advantage.

This reminds me of the time I once cried for a pack of basketball cards. I cried so much, my father came home the next day with a fresh box of Fleer and an assortment of all my favorite ballplayers. What’s the point of my trading card war stories?

Enter Dirrell, who petulantly sobbed his way out of an uncomfortable scenario and into the nurturing nest of his hometown.

Left in a murky situation worse than Detroit’s economy, Armenian fans who predominantly contributed to the sellout of the originally-scheduled Palm Springs fight are now in a pickle as they look to somewhat balance the 21,000 strong that will show up in support of their own grown.

The fight was scheduled to take place at the Aqua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage Calif. with Vic Darchiyan headlining the undercard and providing a presumable night of nirvana for Armenian fans all across Los Angeles. Two thousand tickets were immediately sold out and demand for them was at a premium.

The following quote, found in the Grand Rapids Press and belonging to that of co-promoter of the fight Carlos Llinas, says it all as to what is expected from Armenians come March 27.

“Hopefully, it will be a boost to Michigan’s economy because Abraham has a great following and those people will be flying to Detroit, renting cars, eating, and going to the fight. Events like these are exactly what Detroit needs to boost the economy.”

Miss Cleo just looked into her crystal ball and she sees an Armenian knockout on the 27th with countless herds heading to Detroit in the near future.

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TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets go on sale Saturday, March 6 at 10:00 a.m. Pricing has been set at $28, $53, $78, $103 and $128. Tickets can be purchased at OlympiaEntertainment.com, Ticketmaster.com (including all Ticketmaster outlets) and the Joe Louis Arena box office.

To charge tickets by phone, call 1(800) 745-3000. For additional information, call 313-471-6611.

The last time Detroit hosted a fight of any magnitude was when Mike Tyson faced off against Andrew Golota in 2000. The Joe Louis Arena is home to the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League.