ARTHUR ABRAHAM DEFENDS IBF TITLE

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2009 16:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Arthur Abraham retained his IBF middleweight title
with a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Lajuan Simon
on Saturday.

Abraham pounded Simon, who finished with a swollen left eye, but
could not land a knockout punch.

Simon moved well and took a lot of punches, but his counter punches
were few and never really troubled the champion, who defended the
title for the ninth time and improved to 29-0.

The judges scored it 117-110, 118-109 and 117-110 for Abraham,
a naturalized German who was born in Armenia.

"I am pleased with my performance tonight," Abraham said. "He was
not a bad opponent and he took a lot and he fought bravely. It was
important to win."

He was hoping for a unification bout against Kelly Pavlik, who holds
the WBO and WBC belts.

"After that I will move into the super-middleweight division,"
Abraham said.

He traditionally has trouble making the weight limit in the
middleweight division and 15 pounds in 10 days before the fight.

Simon lost for the first time in 25 fights. He also has two draws.

"He was stronger than I thought, it was an interesting experience. I
will be back," bostonherald.com cited Simon as saying.