Friday, February 25, 2011

Arthur Abraham

Arthur Abraham

(born Avetik Abrahamyan on February 20, 1980 in Yerevan, Armenia) is an Armenian-German professional boxer residing in Berlin, Germany. He was IBF world middleweight champion from 2005 to 2009, making ten successful defences of his title. As of the end of 2009, The Ring has ranked Abraham as the 14th best boxer in the world

Early career

Abraham boxed as an amateur in Bamberg and later in Nuremberg. He was German junior welterweight champion in 1997. He fought 90 matches as an amateur, winning 81, with 6 draws and 3 defeats.

Professional career

Abraham started his professional career in 2003. Sauerland-promoted Abraham bested Ian Gardner, Hector Velazco and contender Howard Eastman in the build-up and won the vacant title on December 10, 2005, in Leipzig, Germany against Kingsley Ikeke by a 5th round knock-out. On September 23, 2006, Abraham won a decision against undefeated contender Edison Miranda despite having his jaw broken in two places. Miranda was deducted five points by landing repeated low blows as well as intentionally headbutting Abraham in the 5th round. After the Miranda bout, he was praised for his ability to finish the fight despite his injury.

Abraham defeated Canadian Sébastien Demers and made the fifth defense of his title by defeating fellow Armenian Khoren Gevor by 11th round technical knockout.

On December 8, 2007, Abraham defeated Wayne Elcock to make his sixth defense of his title by TKO in the 5th round.

During two of his matches, Arthur Abraham was accompanied by live performances of the Scorpions and is currently accompanied by the track "Ready For The Fight" by The Young Punx.

On March 29, 2008, Abraham defeated American Elvin Ayala via 12th round KO after connecting with a devastating left hook which sent his opponent crashing to the canvas face first. This was Abraham's 7th successful title defence.

Abraham-Miranda 2

On June 21, 2008, the fight took place at a catchweight of 166 lbs. Abraham's IBF middleweight title was not on the line. Abraham immediately backed Miranda up with hard right jabs before backing off himself behind a high, tight guard. A Miranda right hand landed off the gloves of Abraham as he came out more measured than he had the first time around. Abraham set in to work the body but a stray shot brought a low blow warning from the referee. Miranda made the fight throughout the second round as Abraham did little in the way of punching. Thudding body shots landed on Abraham, but Miranda could get little past the gloves upstairs. A low blow landed from Miranda in the final thirty seconds that brought a brief halt to the action; Abraham calmly caught his breath before returning to his defensive posture.

Abraham waved Miranda forward after another barrage of shots bounced off his gloves before landing two body shots and a hard right hand for his best work of the bout. Miranda drew a warning for holding and hitting before another right hand from Abraham buckled his knees. Abraham stepped back rather than following up, choosing to maintain a methodical game plan. The game plan was sound. In the first minute of the fourth round, a perfectly timed right hand-left hook sent Miranda to the floor. Miranda rose, clearly hurt, and this time Abraham would not fail to press the advantage.

Another left hook would drop Miranda along the ropes and Miranda would again rise but his legs were clearly gone and the end was at hand. Abraham would land a final striking right hand for the round's third knockdown as the referee leapt in to halt the action before Miranda could attempt to rise again.

On November 8, 2008, "King Arthur" Abraham (28-0, 22 KOs), 28, defeated Raúl Márquez (41-4-1, 29 KOs), 37, by a 6th round technical knockout, at the Bamberg's Jako Arena, the 8th defense of his IBF middleweight boxing title. He retained his IBF-Title on March 14, 2009 against Lajuan Simon, his first fight over 12 rounds since his legendary battle against Edison Miranda. The 10th and last defense of his middlweight title took place in Berlin against Turkish-German boxer Mahir Oral, Abraham won this fight by a 10th round technical knockout.

Super Six

After failing to secure a match-up with WBO/WBC champion Kelly Pavlik he announced that he would change his weight class to compete at super middleweight. Abraham is participating in the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament for the WBA and WBC super middleweight title. In his first match of the tournament he faced Jermain Taylor in October 2009, and defeated him via a devastating knockout in the 12th round. He lost his next fight by disqualification due to hitting Andre Dirrell while he was down in the 11th round. At the point of the disqualification, the scores were 97-92, 98-91, and 97-92 all in favor of Dirrell.[2] He then lost to Carl Froch for the vacant WBC super-middleweight title in his third fight of the tournament, as he was dominated from start to finish, losing a unanimous decsion. The scores given by the judges were 119-109, 120-108 and 120-108, which reflected the one sided nature of the bout

Success

As an amateur:

  • 1997: International German master in the middleweight

As a professional:

  • 2004: WBA Inter-Continental Middleweight Title, three successful defenses
  • 2005: IBF title carrier, title so far 10 times defended

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