Ward Disarms Abraham While Cruising to Super Six Finals
Added on May 16, 2011 by Brian Blake in
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Heading into his semi-final bout with “King” Arthur Abraham, Andre Ward was considered the odds-on favorite to win Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic.
His performance on Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. put the exclamation point on that notion.
Ward retained his WBA Super Middleweight Title with a lopsided unanimous decision over the Armenian born brawler with scores of 120-108, 118-110 and 118-111 to advance to the finals of the tournament.
SportsBettingWorld.com had the bout scored 118-110 in favor of the champion.
The bout started off very competitively through the first four rounds with each fighter doing enough to split them. Abraham was effective when utilizing his jab and working off of it. Ward used his pinpoint accuracy to keep the challenger at bay. It became a drastically different fight following the fourth frame when Abraham became extremely defensive going into a shell and almost refusing to let his hands go, with the exception winging wild shots like that of a bar-room brawler, while Ward threw countless combinations to take the lead on the score cards.
By the end of the sixth round it was clear that Abraham was a spent fighter. Unable to conceal his fatigue he walked back to his corner and while waiting for the stool to be brought in he lowered his head and draped himself over the ropes. Ward, on the other hand, looked to be just getting started as round by round he continued to pick apart his tired opponent with endless shots to the head and body.
“My trainer says that I’m the type of fighter to make adjustments and that’s what I did,” said Ward, who threw 289 jabs during the fight, landing 178 of his 444 total punches. “I wish the refs would have let me fight on the inside – that’s what we trained for. But we made adjustments and got the victory. After a hard hit, I would go back to my corner and I would do two things: I would listen to my corner and talk to myself and I would say, ‘Bite down and fight back.’ ”
Abraham, who had entered the tournament with an undefeated record and one of the favorites to reach the finals, has now lost three of his last four bouts.
“I started well and thought I was doing OK for the first three rounds,” said Abraham, the former International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight world champion. “He never hurt me and I was blocking all his punches. But then I cramped up when I was trying for the knockout and I couldn’t do it.
Whatever the reason may be for Ward’s victory, be it cramping in Abraham’s legs or the sheer amount of skill possessed by the Oakland, California fighter, the fact remains that Abraham is now officially out of the tournament while Ward eagerly awaits for his opponent for the finals which will be determined on June 4 in Atlantic City where WBC 168-lb. king Carl Froch takes on Glen Johnson in the last of the semi-finals matches.
“I’ll fight Johnson or Froch, but I think the public wants to see Froch-Ward,” said the WBA Champ.
No matter who Ward fights in the finals, if he continues to put on performances like that of which took place against Abraham, he could very well at the end of the World Boxing Classic find himself receiving two world title belts, the tournament trophy along with an endless amount of praise.
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