By William MacKay: It’s been an incredible 21 months, almost two years since the two last fought, and it’s seemed more than a lifetime for super middleweight knockout artist Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KOs) who has been deeply bitter since that time when he lost a controversial 12-round unanimous decision to IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (26-0, 21 KOs) in Arthur’s adopted country Germany. The fight, which had high expectations going into the bout, turned into a confusing fight, stopped on four separate occasions with Miranda getting 5 points taken away from him for a mix of fouls – low blows and a head butt.

Abraham, fighting in his high energy style, had his jaw broken in the 4th round when he ran into a straight right hand from Miranda. From then on, Abraham was forced to fight with his mouth wide open, with blood constantly pouring out. The fight should have been stopped, but there didn’t seem to be anyone in charge willing to make that decision, certainly not the referee Randy Neumann, who looked like he was waiting for the ringside doctor to make the call. It didn’t, and Abraham was forced to fight the rest of the way with his jaw broken badly. As it turns out, even with the point deductions given back, Miranda would have lost regardless, as the judges had Abraham soundly defeating Miranda in the fight.

This seems greatly at odds with the actual fight, which had Miranda chasing Abraham all around the ring from the first until the 12th round, hitting him with big loaded up shots. Abraham, for his part, landed well at times but he mostly was content to throw brief flurries, trying to win the round with a couple of short bursts in each round.

Unlike last time, this Saturday’s fight will be at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, in Hollywood, Florida. This is obviously will be a huge factor in Miranda’s favor, because he won’t have to deal with a large crowd rooting against him like last time. He seemed noticeably bothered at times in the fight but the constant cheering for Abraham, though he seemed much more irritated and unnerved by the constant fouls called against him by the referee Neumann.

It’s doubt that the referee for this Saturday’s bout will want to interject himself as much as Neumann did last time out, that is, unless either Miranda or Abraham does something totally obvious and make it a necessity that the referee can’t ignore. In general, I’m guessing that the referee will want to stay out of the way and let both fighters fight it out this time, to prove who really is the better fighter between them.

It’s unfortunate that Abraham’s IBF middleweight title won’t be on the line for this fight, since the fights taking place at 166 lbs catch weight and not at the 160 lb limit of the middleweight division. This is a plus for Abraham, because he risks little in fighting Miranda. Not only will he still have his title should he lose to Miranda, but even better, Abraham’s German fans won’t be around to see him lose. That’s not to say that he will lose, for he might have a good night and end up beating Miranda.

However, if Abraham fights anything like he did last time, running constantly, covering up on the ropes for long stretches of time, turning his back and walking away from him to try and waste time, only fighting for short stretches in each round, then I see Miranda winning the fight quite handily. I think most judges’ wouldn’t have scored favorably for Abraham if the fight had occurred elsewhere in the world, and would have seen him trying to steal rounds rather than actively win them.

Miranda, now 27, will fight pretty much as he always does, going right after Abraham and loading up with huge hooks to the body and head. Miranda didn’t seem too bothered by Abraham’s brief flurries last time out, and generally would either back up, trying to catch him with a big shot coming in, or would attempt to meet him just as he was coming forward with a big shot to turn him back. This is what happened in the 4th round when Miranda broke Abraham’s jaw; Abraham came running forward throwing shots with each stride and caught a right hand from Miranda, which broken Abraham’s jaw.

It doesn’t look as if Abraham’s changed his style much since their fight, as he still tends to attack his opponents in the same running style as he used in their 2006 fight. Knowing this, I’m sure that Miranda is prepared with how to deal with his confusing style of fighting even better than then he did last time.

Barring any unforeseen injury on Abraham or Miranda’s part, I see this as a very winnable fight for Miranda. Though his boxing skills aren’t on the same level of Abraham’s, his power is much better, and it will likely be the deciding factor in the fight. Abraham was uncomfortable with getting hit by Miranda, and fought defensively for much of the fight to avoid taking his heavy shots. I expect this to be the case again on Saturday.

Abraham will run, try to avoid taking shots, and will lose mostly every round of the fight. I don’t see a knockout occurring because Abraham won’t stand and trade enough for that to happen, but if he does, then yes, I don’t see Abraham having the chin to stand up to the huge power that Miranda will be leveling at him.