By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (29-0, 23 KOs) won an especially unimpressive 12-round unanimous decision over American challenger Lajuan Simon (21-1-2, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at the Ostseehalle, Kiel, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The final judges’ scores were 117-110, 118-109 and 117-110. I personally had Abraham winning eight rounds to four, but along the way he showed the inability to fight hard for three minutes of every round while also fouling often with a variety of dirty fouls.
Simon was knocked down in the 3rd round. However, the referee Benjy Esteves Jr. failed to notice that it was a result of a hard shove from Abraham rather than an actual punch. Abraham still would have won handily even without the benefit of the knockdown, but it’s never a good thing when a referee misses the call.
This was a fight where Abraham, 29, had most of the advantages going in. Not only was he the much more powerful puncher, but he was also fighting in front of a home crowd in Germany, something which made his job much easier than it already was.
His opponent, the 30-year-old Simon, had zero power and no experience against quality opposition going into this fight. Still, he fought remarkably well considering his lack of relevant experience. Part of that was due to Abraham’s poor stamina, because he looked exhausted by the 6th round and spent large portions of the time covering up on the ropes.
He generally did little for the first two minutes of ever rounds, and like many other German fighters, he would come alive in the last minute to try and steal the round. It’s a bad habit to do, but nonetheless effective in causing the more impressionable judges’ to forget the first two minutes of every round and focus just on the last minute.
It’s a bad way to judge a fight, but that’s how it goes not just in Germany but pretty much everywhere. Simon took over the fight in the 6th, taking the fight to a tired looking Abraham and landing well with combinations until the 10th. At that time, Abraham seemed to realize that the fight was getting out of hand and began to load up with his shots, mostly right hands.
Abraham was warned repeatedly throughout the fight about throwing elbows and forearms, yet no penalization was every given to him. In the last three rounds, Abraham repeatedly would charge forward throwing right hands and missing quite a bit of his punches. His power, which had served him well against fighters like Edison Miranda, Raul Marquez, Wayne Elcock and many others, had no real effect on Simon.
This meant that Abraham would be forced to go the whole distance and fight for the full 12 rounds. After getting somewhat spoiled due to him only fighting 12 rounds once in the past two years, Abraham seemed unready for the experience and labored badly in the second half of the fight. Not much of a boxer to begin with, Abraham was forced to out-slug Simon to get the win.
Many of Abraham’s assaults seemed poorly planned, just a wild swinging attacks that looked both amateurish and foolish at the same time. Simon may not have been a powerful slugger, but with Abraham fighting like a wild man without much technique, it enabled Simon to make the most of his limited abilities by picking off the sloppy Abraham again and again in his primitive attacks. In rounds ten through twelve, Abraham had to dig deep to land the harder shots to try and make up for the fact that he was being out-landed.
If Kelly Pavlik, the WBC/WBO middleweight champion, saw this fight, he must have been licking his chops at how badly Abraham looked. He had none of the movement, speed or boxing ability of Bernard Hopkins showed against Pavlik, and was winning mostly on his ability to land the harder shots.
Against a straight ahead fighter like Pavlik, who can slug with power all night long without taking breathers for two minutes of every round, it would seem like a very dangerous fight for Abraham to take right about now. Maybe he can improve by the time the two meet up, which as of now is uncertain due to their different plans in the near future.
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