ARTHUR ABRAHAM V JERMAINE TAYLOR- IRON MAN ABRAHAM CAN PROVE HIS CLASS DAN HUNTER

Bettingpro.com
13 Oct 2009

"King" Arthur can be Froch’s biggest rival

Unless you are a serious fight fan, you might not be familiar with
the name Arthur Abraham, but this Saturday night the Armenian Iron
Man can move one step closer to being ranked among the modern greats
of the middleweight and super-middleweight divisions.

He takes on American Jermaine Taylor at the 02 World Arena in Berlin
in what will be his first fight in what is being billed as Showtimes
Super Six, a tournament created by Showtime TV to crown the king of the
ultra-competitive super-middleweight division. Abraham has previously
defended the IBF version of the middleweight title no less than ten
times since winning it in 2005.

While not quite ready to be mentioned in the same breath as Monzon,
Hagler and Hopkins, the undefeated Abraham (30 – 0, 24 ko´s) has
been relentlessly plying his craft in his adopted Germany building
a reputation as a super-tough, super-fit boxer-puncher. In this age
of superstar boxers that fight only when it suits them and damn
the title, Abraham is a throwback to fighters of the 1930´s and
1940´s He averaged three defenses of his title a year, unheard
of today. And although in 2008 he only managed two defenses of his
title, sandwiched in between was a tough rematch with Edison Miranda
at super-middleweight.

The very fact that Abraham dispatched the dangerous Miranda in just
four rounds, when two years earlier the same Miranda had broken his
jaw in two places and taken him the distance in a title defense showed
us three things;

a) Abraham’s vast improvement as a fighter, b) Despite the threat
provided by the vicious punching Miranda, his incredible belief in
his own abilities, c) Again against Miranda, how impossibly strong
and powerful Abraham will be at super-middleweight.

While his American rival Kelly Pavlik made the news and stole the
headlines in the middleweight division, despite losing a his unbeaten
record in last year, in many experts minds Abraham had moved to the
top of the list of the best middleweights in the world, this writer
included.

He will convince many more that he is ready to dominate the twelve
stone division with an impressive win against the former undisputed
middleweight champion Jermaine Taylor (28 – 3 – 1 (17 ko´s).

Will he add to his reputation with an emphatic win? Or might Taylor
just pull off the upset of the year?

If you were to place a bet on Taylor you would get odds of 12/5 at
bet365, which to the uneducated means if Taylor were to win, you would
earn 12 quid back on a five pound bet. That same fiver would only
earn you £1.50 if you were to back ´´King" Arthur. The bookies
seldom get it wrong, and they are obviously going by Taylor´s last
four fights that tally up to a less than impressive W1- L3 KO by 2.

Taylor is still only 31 but his back to back middleweight title
victories over the seemingly invincible Hopkins in 2005 seem such a
long time ago, and were in retrospect the pinnacle of his career. After
that were a succession of frustrating performances by a fighter
who appeared to have the world at his feet. Handsome, clean cut,
articulate, and by the way, he could actually fight. We forgave him his
draw against Winky Wright because Winky was on a streak that included
big wins over Shane Mosely (twice) and Felix Trinidad, and nobody
looked good against Winky, so a draw was almost as good as a win.

But the alarm bells began ringing when he struggled to a split decision
win against blown up welterweight Cory Spinks, and his world came
crashing down against the vicious punching Kelly Pavlik. Ironically,
he looked back to his best in the first few rounds of the Pavlik
fight and came within a whisker of a sensational two round blowout,
only for Pavlik to come roaring back to kayo Taylor in the seventh
round in my contender for Fight of the Year 2007.

He took a rematch with Pavlik in 2008 and lost a close but unanimous
decision. He followed up this with a surprisingly one side p

This win gave him a shot at the new WBC super-middleweight champion,
Nottingham´s own Iron Man, Carl Froch.

Taylor boxed beautifully for large parts of the fight, and in
truth made the limited Froch looked amateurish. He floored Froch
in the third, and built up a huge lead before fading down the
stretch. Froch will never be mistaken for Sugar Ray Robinson, but he
is freakishly strong and has a will and resilience seldom seen in a
British fighter. Froch finally floored and stopped Taylor with just
14 seconds remaining of the twelfth and final round.

At 6ft 2 inches tall, Taylor was a very tall middleweight. Ironically,
he looked slighter and lighter than Froch, when if anything he should
have looked bulkier. Abraham stands 5´10´´ and packs a lot of
muscle and power into his frame. Taylor will have to produce the
fight of his life to beat Abraham in front of his adopted home crowd.

Boxing history is littered with upsets, and Hopkins recent schooling
of Pavlik was a classic example of a quality fighter written off
prematurely.

But it is hard to see anything other than a win for the relentless
Abraham this Saturday.
From: Baghdasarian