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ARTHUR ABRAHAM TKO5 PABLO OSCAR NATALIO FARIAS
By Dan Rafael
ESPN
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7466092/robert-stieglitz-retains-heavyweight-belt-arthur-abraham-wins-ugly
Jan 16 2012
Rafael's remarks: From 2005 to 2009, the Armenia-born, Germany-based
Abraham held a middleweight title, made 10 defenses (including winning
some by spectacular knockout) and was a feared fighter. But when he
vacated his belt and moved up to super middleweight to join Showtime's
Super Six World Boxing Classic, Abraham's career went off the cliff.
Widely viewed as a favorite to make it to the finals, along with
Sauerland Event stablemate Mikkel Kessler, Abraham instead crashed and
burned in the tournament. After knocking out faded former undisputed
middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in the 12th round of their
opening-round bout in October 2009, Abraham did not win again in
the tournament. And it is not so much that he did not win again, it
is that he lost his fights in lopsided, uncompetitive fashion that
really did the damage. He barely won more than a few rounds after
the Taylor fight.
In the second group stage, Andre Dirrell dropped Abraham and was on
his way to a lopsided win when Abraham was disqualified in the 11th
round for hitting Dirrell while he was down after he had slipped to
the canvas. Abraham then lost overwhelmingly noncompetitive decisions
in title bouts to Carl Froch and eventual tournament winner Andre
Ward, although Abraham snuck in a nontournament win against a D-level
opponent.
Making his return to the ring for the first time since losing so
decisively to Ward in the Super Six semifinals in May, Abraham, 31,
looked terrible despite scoring the knockout victory. Farias, 24, of
Argentina, was much smaller than Abraham and way less experienced. He
was there because he was supposed to be outclassed. Yet there he
was winning early rounds against Abraham, who, like he did in the
tournament, simply would not -- or could not -- throw punches at a
halfway decent rate. Abraham picked up the pace a little bit near the
end of the third round, when he finally landed a few shots and began
to work Farias to the body. In the fifth round, Abraham landed a right
to the body and a left to the head to drop Farias for the first time.
Moments later, a pair of right hands put Farias on the deck for the
second time. Soon after, Abraham landed a right to the body and,
although it did not look like a big punch, Farias went down to a
knee and then fell backward in an exaggerated manner as though he had
been hit with the biggest punch in history. Referee Manuel Maritxalar
immediately waived it off at 2 minutes to give Abraham the victory.
Although Abraham got the knockout, it really was a shaky performance
at best and he was haunted by the same old issue of not throwing
punches. If Abraham cannot correct that flaw, he is seemingly doomed
to losing if he steps up to face another top super middleweight in
the future. He is still quite popular in Germany -- he sold out the
4,000-seat venue -- which is why he was in the main event instead of
super middleweight titlist Robert Stieglitz's defense, which was on
the undercard. Sauerland Event knows that and probably will want to
match Abraham with a few more soft touches before cashing him out.
Abraham, at this point, is an attraction in Germany but not a
legitimate super middleweight contender.
By Dan Rafael
ESPN
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7466092/robert-stieglitz-retains-heavyweight-belt-arthur-abraham-wins-ugly
Jan 16 2012
Rafael's remarks: From 2005 to 2009, the Armenia-born, Germany-based
Abraham held a middleweight title, made 10 defenses (including winning
some by spectacular knockout) and was a feared fighter. But when he
vacated his belt and moved up to super middleweight to join Showtime's
Super Six World Boxing Classic, Abraham's career went off the cliff.
Widely viewed as a favorite to make it to the finals, along with
Sauerland Event stablemate Mikkel Kessler, Abraham instead crashed and
burned in the tournament. After knocking out faded former undisputed
middleweight champion Jermain Taylor in the 12th round of their
opening-round bout in October 2009, Abraham did not win again in
the tournament. And it is not so much that he did not win again, it
is that he lost his fights in lopsided, uncompetitive fashion that
really did the damage. He barely won more than a few rounds after
the Taylor fight.
In the second group stage, Andre Dirrell dropped Abraham and was on
his way to a lopsided win when Abraham was disqualified in the 11th
round for hitting Dirrell while he was down after he had slipped to
the canvas. Abraham then lost overwhelmingly noncompetitive decisions
in title bouts to Carl Froch and eventual tournament winner Andre
Ward, although Abraham snuck in a nontournament win against a D-level
opponent.
Making his return to the ring for the first time since losing so
decisively to Ward in the Super Six semifinals in May, Abraham, 31,
looked terrible despite scoring the knockout victory. Farias, 24, of
Argentina, was much smaller than Abraham and way less experienced. He
was there because he was supposed to be outclassed. Yet there he
was winning early rounds against Abraham, who, like he did in the
tournament, simply would not -- or could not -- throw punches at a
halfway decent rate. Abraham picked up the pace a little bit near the
end of the third round, when he finally landed a few shots and began
to work Farias to the body. In the fifth round, Abraham landed a right
to the body and a left to the head to drop Farias for the first time.
Moments later, a pair of right hands put Farias on the deck for the
second time. Soon after, Abraham landed a right to the body and,
although it did not look like a big punch, Farias went down to a
knee and then fell backward in an exaggerated manner as though he had
been hit with the biggest punch in history. Referee Manuel Maritxalar
immediately waived it off at 2 minutes to give Abraham the victory.
Although Abraham got the knockout, it really was a shaky performance
at best and he was haunted by the same old issue of not throwing
punches. If Abraham cannot correct that flaw, he is seemingly doomed
to losing if he steps up to face another top super middleweight in
the future. He is still quite popular in Germany -- he sold out the
4,000-seat venue -- which is why he was in the main event instead of
super middleweight titlist Robert Stieglitz's defense, which was on
the undercard. Sauerland Event knows that and probably will want to
match Abraham with a few more soft touches before cashing him out.
Abraham, at this point, is an attraction in Germany but not a
legitimate super middleweight contender.