By Bradley Tice: Undefeated junior middleweight prospect Alexander Abraham (20-0-1, 14 KOs) stayed unbeaten with a disappointing 6-round unanimous decision over Mehdi Azri (12-6, 2 KOs) on Tuesday night at the P arc des Sports et Loisirs, Pont-Audemer, Eure, France. Abraham, 26, the younger brother of undefeated IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, is clearly a work in progress at this point in his career. He has little of the boxing skills, power or the speed of his older brother, and is still learning how to develop the potential that he does have. Against Azri, who had come into the fight having lost five out of his last six fights, it would be putting it gently to say that the younger Abraham didn’t exactly impress. He did, however, when the fight, which is the most important part regardless of how sloppy he looked in doing so.
Abraham fought mostly flat-footed in the first round, tending to focus mainly on throwing body shots. It was a good idea because Azri was running all around the ring and making it hard to get a bead on him for a head shot. Obviously, Abraham had done his homework and realized what kind of style that Azri would be bringing into the ring. For his part, Azri landed next to nothing in the round, only a few wild shots in passing. It was ugly street boxing, the kind that you might see on the corner.
In the second round, Abraham slowly stalked Azri, who was now running even more than the first round. Abraham was finding it hard to hit him and it’s perfectly understandable why; Abraham used zero jabs while attacking, instead just winging shots and throwing as if every punch had knockout intentions.
I could understand why he’d want to knock Azri quickly, perhaps wanting to impress his brother at ringside and the many fans watching the fight, but Abraham just didn’t have the kind of power that leads to quick knockouts. His brother, Arthur, now that’s a different story altogether in terms of power. He’d have flattened Azri in the first round, but then again, his power is much better, including his speed and boxing skills. Whatever the case, Abraham used little technique, as he looked very obvious and crude with what he was trying to do. He began to take a lot of unnecessary shots because of his drive for a knockout. As it was, he was much slower than Azri and needed to use more jabs to keep him from landing shots. However, Abraham threw only a handful of jabs in the round, focusing mostly on using his right hand.
Abraham continued trying to strong arm Azri in the 3rd round, using no feints, just following him around and trying to land one big bomb after another. He looked terribly slow, reminding me of an old George Foreman in his comeback years, though without any of Foreman’s incredible punching power. This was another round that Abraham easily won, but looked sloppy in doing so. His technique looked bad in the round and it made me cringe to see him fight, not because was the brother of Arthur Abraham, but because the promoters would decide on putting him in a bout with such a big audience to see him.
Abraham finally began to land some combinations in the fourth, which was perhaps his best round of the fight. He looked decent in this round, like a poor man’s version of his brother. He even landed one big right hand that seemed to get the attention of Azri, and got the crowd, some of whom had been booing, into the fight for a moment. By the end of the round, Azri was beginning to develop redness under his left eye.
In the 5th round, Abraham went back to throwing only one punch at a time, loading up as before and trying to take Azri out with every shot. It was awful to look at, because he moved around and missed a lot and began taking shots from Azri once again. Abraham was clearly trying to finish strong, so I suppose one can’t find fault in him for that. I just wish he’d have used his jab a lot more in the round.
In the 6th round, Abraham came out looking determined to score a knockout. Every punch was a wild swing, looking almost like a baseball batter trying to hit a home run. Naturally, Abraham missed a huge amount of punches in his haste to score a knockout. Near the end of the round, looking tired and red-faced, Abraham fell to the canvas after one particular wild miss with his right hand. He got up, dusted himself off and started in with more obvious punches.
In the 7th and 8th round, Abraham began to bounce on his feet, and suddenly throwing jabs for the first time in the fight. He looked great, almost a 100% better than he had in any of the other rounds. He was no longer loading up as much with his punches and it was as if he was finally clued into the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to knock this guy out. The bout ended on a strong note for him, with him showing some decent boxing skills which he hadn’t used in any of the previous rounds.
At times, Abraham showed some of the same skills of his older brother, particularly with his impressive body attack in the later rounds of the fight. That said, he rarely threw punches in combinations, punching mostly one at a time, and tended to load up on everything he threw. Part of the problem for Abraham, unfortunately, is that he’s been put in with exclusively soft C-level fighters by his German management, and has grown accustomed to getting away with poor technique, for he has been able to beat all of his soft opponents by throwing only one punch at a time and taking them out with only one shot. His power isn’t all that good, so it would be in his interest, and that of his management, to start putting him in with better fighters to help break him of his habit of knocking out mediocre fighters in the first couple of rounds. He’s got to learn to move his head, because his defense is very porous and even against Azri, another C-class fighter, Abraham took more punishment than he should have.
Unlike his brother, he doesn’t attack with flurries. It’s odd that he doesn’t do this, mostly because you’d think that by watching his brother for some time he’d have learned how to attack in this manner. I don’t really like Arthur Abraham’s style of fighting, mind you, because he seems to be wide open for counter shots the way he rushes forward with many of his wild attacks. However, it’s carried him this far against the mostly limited European fighters that he’s fought. Without that style of fighting, neither brother will likely every do much in much in the sport due to their lack of hand-speed, defense and above average power. For this reason, at the very least, Alexander Abraham needs to learn how to attack with quick flurries and try to overwhelm his opponents like his brother. He certainly didn’t show any sustained combinations in any of the six rounds of his bout with Azri, and instead plodded after him with his right hand cocked as if he were holding onto a gun or something.
He seems to carry himself as if he’s another Julian Jackson, the famous junior middleweight knockout artist from the 80s, famous for one-punch knockouts of many of his opponents. Abraham, however, is only an average punches despite his decent knockout record. Virtually all of the knockouts have come against soft opposition, so it seems to have twisted his perception of himself in the process. It’s unfortunate because he’s going to be in for a rude awakening when/if his German handlers ever move him up to face a B-class fighter. Believe me, he won’t pass that test, at least not the fighter I saw on Tuesday night. As he is now, he’s too slow, too predictable, too weak and too wide open for any shots thrown his way. I’d suggest shipping him to New York, where he can find a good gym and they can teach him some things and break him of his poor habits. Maybe then, he might someday rise to contender status, but now. What’s most shocking of all, however, is that he’s been a professional for five years, has 21 fights, winning move of them, yet he looks so marginal.