Arthur Abraham vs. Pablo Farias tonight in critical fight for “King Arthur”

By Boxing News - 01/14/2012 - Comments

Image: Arthur Abraham vs. Pablo Farias tonight in critical fight for "King Arthur"By Eric Thomas: Former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (32-3, 26 KO’s) badly needs to win tonight to save his sagging career, which has seen Abraham beaten in three out of his last four fights in the past two years.

To ensure that the 31-year-old Abraham will finally win a fight, Abraham is being matched against little known 2nd tier opponent Pablo Natalio Farias (19-1, 11 KO’s) tonight at the Baden Arena in Offenberg, Germany. If Abraham can’t win this fight then he needs to retire from boxing because there would likely be no hope for him at middleweight or super middleweight.

Abraham is using this fight as a test to see if he can raise his work rate. Abraham has had problems throwing enough punches in both his wins and losses in the past three years and he figures that he improve in this area if he focuses more on it. However, if Abraham hasn’t been able to do anything about it in his losses to Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch and Andre Ward, it’s highly doubtful that his punch output will suddenly surge tonight against Farias.

That goes against the grain of the kind of fighter that Abraham has been throughout his career. He’s more like WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck, a fighter that hangs on the outside for the most part and every once in a while makes a mad rush forward in which he throws wild shots in every direction.

Neither Huck nor Abraham have the stamina to work hard for three minutes of every round. They’re basically fighters that throw punches in brief surges followed by long periods of inactivity. It works for them when they’re facing guys that can’t box or who have weak chins, but they struggle against better fighters.

Abraham should get by Farias tonight without any problem but not because Abraham will be an improved fighter. He’ll beat him because they pooled from the 2nd tier to find someone that Abraham could actually beat.