By Michael Lieberman: I hate to say I told you so, because it pains me to gloat when I’m right but I predicted this outcome, although I was off by two rounds in my prediction. Instead of Edison Miranda (30-3, 26 KOs) being knocked out in the 6th round, as I previously predicted, he only lasted four rounds against Arthur Abraham (27-0, 22 KOs), in a fight that was mostly going Miranda’s way up until the 4th round, when Abraham suddenly dropped Miranda with a right hand. Abraham would later drop Miranda two more times, at which point referee Telis Assimenios stopped the bout at 1:13 of the 4th round.
It’s hard to say what happened to the 27 year-old Miranda. He was fighting well in the first three rounds, keeping Abraham, 28, under constant pressure, hitting him with big shots and mostly not getting hit with anything significant. In a way, it was a like the first three rounds of their first fight in September 2006, in which Abraham covered up continuously on along the ropes, and fighting a kind of primitive rope-a-dope. In this case, however, Abraham was blocking little and getting hit with a lot of shots from Miranda full force to the head and body. In the first round, Miranda was warned for throwing a low blow, and thankfully the referee didn’t penalize Miranda. In the second round, Miranda landed another low blow, a hard right hand that landed well low, causing Abraham to crouch down and wince in pain.
The referee then stopped the action and allowed Abraham a minute to rest and recover from the shot. Once again, Miranda was warned by the referee, who was still wise enough not to dock Miranda points. However, the American crowd hated it, booing loudly and not buying that Abraham had been hit low. The booing wasn’t new for Abraham as he was booed loudly upon entering the ring before the opening bell. However, Abraham didn’t let the booing get to him and stayed well composed under the circumstance.
Miranda landed well in the first two rounds, stalking Abraham constantly and hitting him with big right hands to the head and body, and powerful left hooks. Abraham mostly stayed covered up and only threw a few right hands in both rounds, instead focusing more on trying to jab Miranda.
In the 3rd round, Abraham landed a couple of hard right hands, one of which staggered Miranda near the end of the round. Instead of going after him, trying to finish him off, Abraham stayed cautious and instantly covered up after letting loose his right hands. This probably let Miranda fight a lot longer than he would have because he seemed to not be able to take Abraham’s power well.
In the fourth round, of staying away from Abraham and trying to fight a little smarter to avoid getting hurt again, Miranda went right at Abraham, throwing heavy combinations for the first minute of the round. Suddenly, Abraham sprang to action, landing a hard jab to the head of Miranda, then followed by a vicious right-left combination moments later that dropped Miranda to the canvas. The left hand never landed, as the right was the shot that did the damage.
After Miranda got up, Abraham, perhaps a little excited, missed a couple of wild hooks that missed by a mile. However, he finally connected with a big sweeping left hook that dropped Miranda to the canvas for the second time in the round. Again Miranda got up, this time though he was much more hurt than before, and when the action resumed he looked glassy-eyed as Abraham came in for the kill. Abraham let loose with a wild right hook that missed, but then followed it with a big left hook that connected to the side of Miranda’s head, sending him falling down backwards onto the canvas. The referee Telis Assimenios had seen enough, and immediately waived off the fight at 1:31 of the 4th round.
With this win, Abraham puts himself into position as the most attractive bout for WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in the near future. Indeed, Pavlik has few middleweights that could even come close to being as exciting and as powerful as the unbeaten Abraham. Against Miranda, Abraham looked even more impressive than Pavlik had been against him, needing far fewer punches to accomplish the knockout. Not considered to be as hard a puncher as Pavlik this knockout may make people reconsider that belief, because Abraham looked not only more powerful than Pavlik, but also a lot more study than him.