Miranda Angling For Fights Against Abraham & Taylor

By Boxing News - 02/19/2008 - Comments

By Tim Williams: In recent weeks, knockout artist Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KOs) has been quite vocal in his comments about IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham and former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, calling out the latter, while seemingly questioning the courage of the former by suggesting that he lacks courage because of his tendency to fight lower quality opponents, always in Germany. Specifically, Miranda, 27, is referring to the latest opponent of Abraham, Elvin Ayala (18-2-1, 8 KO’s), a fighter that has done little to distinguish himself in comparison to other top middleweights in the IBF, like Winky Wright and Jermain Taylor. Miranda had this to say in the past week in regards to Abraham’s low quality opponents:

“Ever since I busted your jaw, you have fought nobody. But here you are bragging to the media about what solid opponents you’ve faced. Who are these guys? It is a joke that you never step it up like a true champion and fight a strong opponent.”

Obviously, if one were to read between the lines, it would appear that Miranda has suddenly taken an interest in Abraham, perhaps seeing an opportunity for another interesting fight. Previously, the two met in a war fought two years ago in September 2006, in which Abraham won by a controversial 12-round unanimous decision in Germany. However, for many people who watched the fight it appeared that Miranda actually won the bout, initiating most of the action and landing the far harder blows. Miranda, however, was deducted an incredible five points for low blows and a head butt.

It seemed excessive, for Abraham appeared to throw just as many low blows, and in addition, he landed a number of elbows, and did a lot of holding and hitting. Yet, Miranda was the only won that lost points in the fight. As many boxing fans would point out later, the fight reeked of a typical case of a fighter winning a home town decision. Abraham suffered a broken jaw in two areas of his jaw, which required an extensive period away from boxing to recover from the injury.

In the meantime, Miranda made the fateful mistake of trying to tangle with Kelly Pavlik, who absolutely destroyed Miranda in seven rounds, knocking him down three times in the process before it was finally stopped with Miranda on the canvas. Though there’s no hard in trying and losing, the fight set back Miranda a little. At the same time, it was a wakeup call for him, letting him know that he couldn’t continue to struggle to make weight to try to get down to the middleweight limit. Miranda then moved up to the super middleweight division where he’s found success in his last two bouts, knocking out Henry Porras and David Banks. Miranda has a potential bout against unbeaten contender Jean Pascal that may occur in June.

However, beyond that, Miranda isn’t likely to get a shot at one of the super middleweight champions in the near term. This is perhaps where Abraham comes in, since there already is unfinished business between the two from last time, and Abraham is still a champion, which makes him an even better opponent for Miranda. Abraham couldn’t go wrong with choosing Miranda, because his next highly ranked opponent – Sebastian Sylvester – isn’t known worldwide, and wouldn’t likely bring in much of a payday in comparison to Miranda.

As for Jermain Taylor, Miranda had this to say about him: “If he is ever man enough to fight me, I want to fight Taylor…He’s been avoiding me for years now.”

Before his bout with Pavlik, Miranda had been calling out Taylor for sometime, but nothing had come of it. Taylor didn’t see any reason for it at the time, for Miranda hadn’t yet proved himself as the number #1 challenger for Taylor’s titles. In hindsight, it appears that Taylor probably should have gone ahead and taken the fight with Miranda, since he did poorly in his two fights with Pavlik. As things are now, with Taylor having lost yet again to Pavlik, it’s unclear whether Miranda would be or even should be still interested in him. Taylor clearly needs to rebuild, and the only way he can do that is by winning fights against named opponents, ones that he can still actually beat at this point. Miranda, though flawed, would be a very tough opponent for him given his extraordinary power.



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