Paul Smith: Abraham is only behind Froch in the super middleweight division

By Boxing News - 02/22/2015 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KOs) was ready to acknowledge tonight that he was beaten by the better many in WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (42-4, 28 KOs) in their fight at the O2 Arena in Berlin, Germany. Smith lost the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, and he was ready to come to terms with his loss after the fight.

This is a dramatic departure from Smith’s previous fight against Abraham last September. IN that fight, Smith lost the fight but then complained that he won it. The complaining eventually led to him getting a rematch.

What’s interesting now is that Smith is agreeing that he lost the fight, but he’s apparently elevating his own talent in the process by saying that Abraham is the second best fighter in the super middleweight division behind only Carl Froch.

smith455So if we’re to follow this line of thought, Smith appears to be calling himself the third best fighter in the super middleweight division behind Froch and Abraham.

“I feel I’ve held my own more than enough with a quality world champion. He’s only behind Carl Froch in the super middleweight division,” Smith said via Skysports.com. “I thought I came on late, I’ve had a good telling off in the corner and managed to push on but I remember looking at the sign around five or six thinking ‘he’s hurt me with this body shot’. I was feeling it because the body shot takes a lot out of you.”

Smith says he held his own with Abraham in this fight. I don’t agree with that at all. I thought Abraham dominated the fight. Smith was mostly on the receiving end of Abraham’s shots. I fail to see where Smith held his own in this fight.

Smith complains that he was hurt by a body shot from Abraham in the 5th or 6th rounds. If Smith was hurt by a body shot in one of those rounds, he did a good job of hiding it. The only time I saw Smith hurt was in the 4th round when he was nailed by a right hand from Abraham.

Smith went on to say that he felt that he won the last three rounds of the fight in taking the 10th through 12th rounds. I didn’t see that happening tonight, as I had Abraham winning two out of the last three rounds. I had Smith winning the 12th round, but definitely not the 10th and 11th rounds.

As for Abraham being the second fighter in the super middleweight division, I think Smith is dreaming if he thinks that’s the case. I don’t rate Abraham as being anywhere near the same level as the Dirrell brothers, Andre and Anthony. I also don’t rate Abraham as being better than Andre Ward or Sakio Bika. Those guys are way better than Abraham in my view.

I don’t know what Smith is going to do now with his career. He’s currently ranked #4 by the WBO. I can’t see that staying that way now that he’s suffered another loss to Abraham. I mean, if the World Boxing Organization doesn’t move Smith down after this latest loss, it’s going to look really bad.



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