FROM SMURF TO CULT HERO, ABRAHAM IS NOT BLUE NOW
Ron Lewis
Times Online, UK
May 22 2007
Some people say that boxing has become too soft, that the hard men have
been crowded out. Meet Arthur Abraham, the IBF middleweight champion,
who used to walk to the ring dressed as a Smurf but who does not need
to prove his tough credentials to anyone.
Originally from Armenia, Abraham is a folk hero in his adopted Germany,
courtesy of a night when his bravery bordered on insanity.
When he defended his title against Edison Miranda last September,
a punch broke Abraham’s jaw during the fourth round. Later in the
same bout, his jaw was broken again by a head-butt. He lost a litre
of blood and the bleeding was so bad that some feared that he had
bitten off his tongue.
However, Abraham was not about to quit and Ulli Wegner, his trainer,
was not about to make him. "He had the chance to be a national hero,"
Wegner said. "I couldn’t take that away from him."
Abraham, who on Saturday boxes for the first time in eight months,
against Sebastien Demers, of Canada, in Bamberg. is just one of
the many Eastern Europeans to have flooded into Germany to start
their professional careers. Some, such as the Klitschko brothers,
have been loved, others, such as Nikolay Valuev, the giant former
WBA heavyweight champion, have not won many hearts. To get noticed,
some have come up with a gimmick.
In Germany, the name Abraham is synonymous with Father Abraham,
leader of The Smurfs, the little blue cartoon cult. So Abraham and his
grim-faced cornermen donned large white Smurf hats as they entered the
ring to The Smurf Song. When he won the IBF middleweight title in 2005,
the hat turned gold, Pierre Kartner, who sang the song that was a No
1 hit in the 1970s, accompanied him live and Abraham was joined on
the ring walk by a group of attractive Smurfettes, who were painted
blue. The holders of The Smurfs copyright failed to see the joke,
but Abraham was soon to find fame another way.
When the injury to his jaw occured, the bout was only four rounds
old, so it was not just be a case of surviving, he had to go on and
win. Wegner, a product of the former East Germany sporting regime, is
not one for being soft. "He teaches you not to show you are in pain,"
Abraham said. "He says the only thing that hurts is in your head."
Wegner said: "From an ethical point of view, it looked quite bad. It
looked much worse on television than it did up close. I always had
the towel in my hand, ready to throw it in if he got hurt."
Instead of staying away, Abraham went on the attack, despite his
gaping open mouth and a swollen jaw that was looking increasingly
ghoulish as the rounds went by. His Colombian opponent was not shy
of fighting dirty, either, as he was deducted five points for low
blows and head-butting.
But the gamble paid off as Abraham won a unanimous decision. The day
after, his picture was on the front of most German newspapers and
the country was talking about him.
However, the after-effects of the bout rumble on. Police said last
week that they were going to charge Wegner and Walter Wagner, the
ringside doctor, with "bodily harm by omission". Abraham said that
he is "unbelievably grateful" Wegner and Wagner did not stop the
bout and the charge seems destined for failure. But he may need to
convince his mother that he is safe to box again after keeping her
in the dark during his week-long stay in hospital.
"I didn’t want to worry her, so I told people to tell her I was having
stitches," Abraham said. "She doesn’t speak German, so she couldn’t
read any different in the papers."