Without a significant win at super middleweight since he vanquished Jermain Taylor in his opening bout of the Super Six tournament back in 2009, promoters Sauerland Event had billed Arthur Abraham’s WBO title challenge to Russian born champion Robert Stieglitz as “The Last Chance”. And over 12 closely contested rounds inside an expectant O2 World Arena in the adopted home town of “King Arthur” the former IBF middleweight boss seized his chance taking a hard fought unanimous decision over a champion making the seventh defence of his title. Judge Rocky Young from Miami scored the contest 115-113, identical to my card, and judges Cesar Ramos of Puerto Rico and Noel Monnet of France were in agreement carding scores of 116-112 for the now two weight world champion. Abraham, 11st 13lbs 11oz, is a notoriously slow starter but in a relatively quiet and uneventful opening round it was the challenger who landed the more effective blows. Trundling forward behind his trademark high guard the 32-year-old poked with his jab before testing the chin of the champion with two arcing hooks as he backed away. Stieglitz’s two previous defeats came at the hands of punchers and despite showing a solid and reliable chin since he was careful not to engage the wild swinging Abraham in the early exchanges. All that changed in the second stanza as Stieglitz came out firing. He landed a right hand that knocked Abraham off balance momentarily and a wild swing in retaliation from the challenger saw him stumble forward and almost end up on the canvas. Both men exchanged punches along the ropes as the crowd roared their approval every time Abraham connected with anything of note. After a slow start to the contest from the champion, who scaled the same 11st 13lbs 11oz as the challenger, he began to fight as most people predicted he would do in the third. As Abraham tucked up and looked to wing his powerful hooks around the guard of Stieglitz, the 31-year-old from Magdeburg would get his shots off a split second quicker making the home favourite appear cumbersome. A big right hand from Stieglitz missed the chin of Abraham by a whisker but enough straight rights connected for him to take the round on my card and edge in front going into the fourth. read more: http://www.doghouseboxing.com/DHB/SOut_Boxing_082612.htm
