It’s recently been announced that former long time IBF title holder King Arthur Abraham will be returning to the middleweight division after a largely unsuccessful stint at super middleweight.
Before stepping up in weight Abrham defended his IBF middleweight title ten times including a points win over Edison Miranda with a dislocated jaw from the fourth round onwards.
In the Super Six tournament against Jermaine Taylor, Abraham stopped the former middleweight champion, although Taylor has been known to fade towards the end of contests. Also Taylor had campaigned at middleweight for most of his career.
In the second round Abraham fought Andre Dirrell. While Dirrell was winning the bout towards the end of the fight Abraham rallied back and was getting to the Flint fighter as he didn't know how to deal. In round eleven Dirrell was hit just after he was slipped. Dirrell couldn't continue due do the injury sustained. Personally I was suprised I didn't see Dirrell's name in the Oscars nominations for best male after his performance...
To say that the 31 year old German is 'shot' would be wide of the mark. His height played a big part of his unsuccessful stint at 168lbs. Abraham stands at 5'9 and he was just too short to compete at elite level.
His style of a high guard, high trunks and powerful bursts is what made him a success in what was a poor middleweight division against B class opposition at the time. Looking back, the proposed match up between Kelly Pavlik, who stands at 6'1 and Arthur Abraham would have been one sided as originally thought.
Before stepping up in weight Abrham defended his IBF middleweight title ten times including a points win over Edison Miranda with a dislocated jaw from the fourth round onwards.
In the Super Six tournament against Jermaine Taylor, Abraham stopped the former middleweight champion, although Taylor has been known to fade towards the end of contests. Also Taylor had campaigned at middleweight for most of his career.
In the second round Abraham fought Andre Dirrell. While Dirrell was winning the bout towards the end of the fight Abraham rallied back and was getting to the Flint fighter as he didn't know how to deal. In round eleven Dirrell was hit just after he was slipped. Dirrell couldn't continue due do the injury sustained. Personally I was suprised I didn't see Dirrell's name in the Oscars nominations for best male after his performance...
In the third round of the tournament he faced Carl Froch and he fought poorly. Some may say he over trained after the fight was delayed for a number of months.
Froch then stayed on the outside and boxed masterfully. Although Abraham did wobble Froch in the final round, his tactics were completely wrong. After the fight Ulli Wegner, Abraham's coach branded him as a coward. I believe this is a bit unfair and taking away the great performance from the Brit.
Against Ward I would have thought Abraham's trainer Ulli Wegner would have changed the game plan for Abraham to implement. He continued to fight 'tall' against the taller man, which again proved disastrous. Ward is a fantastic boxer but the slow, inch forward style of Abraham didn't work at all and it was like he did not learn anything from the Froch fight.
Abraham would benefit from using more of a bob and weave moment movement similar to Joe Frazier and throw thunderous hooks with his reach being quite short, but I cannot see Ulli Wegner changing his coaching methods as they have been successful for a number of years.
I watched a clip of Showtime’s Fight Camp 360 and while the German would not have allowed cameras in to every detail of his camp, one thing was clear to see Ulli Wegner was horrendously slow on the pads and at 69 years, with his trainers hand speed and reaction timing unlikely to improve.
I watched a clip of Showtime’s Fight Camp 360 and while the German would not have allowed cameras in to every detail of his camp, one thing was clear to see Ulli Wegner was horrendously slow on the pads and at 69 years, with his trainers hand speed and reaction timing unlikely to improve.
I believe a good trainer for Abraham would have been Teddy Atlas but unfortunately Atlas and Sauerland relationship is now in tatters regarding comments Atlas made about Kalle Sauerland.
Maybe if Abraham hired a trainer from the UK who can show Abraham a varity of shots and teach him how to manouver himeself into position to land a variety of shots, opposed to the pawing jab and then rushing in.
The problem for Abraham now is that there is a game plan to defeat him, stay on the outside and box in bursts.
Now the middleweight division is packed with talent and it is how he will deal with young, hungry up and coming fighters and if he has enough left to dethrone established champions such as Daniel Geale or Felix Sturm. He has been told by Sauerland that he will have a couple of tune up fights to say in shape. He needs to fight regularly so that the weight stays off or hire a professional nutritionist. At thirty one the weight may not fall off as easy as it used to.
I would love to see Abraham and former EBU title holder Matthew Macklin in the ring together. It just makes for a great fight on the inside, both warriors that love a tear up.
I would love to see Abraham and former EBU title holder Matthew Macklin in the ring together. It just makes for a great fight on the inside, both warriors that love a tear up.
I believe Sergio Martinez is to slick and quick and will have too Abraham. Dimity Pirog is slick and his taller and a much larger reach than Abraham so again I believe he is out boxed by Pirog.
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