By Sean McDaniel: Former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-2, 25 KO’s) put in a really poor effort against Carl Froch last weekend in one-sided loss in their Super Six tournament fight in Helsinki, Finland. Abraham was supposed to have shown more urgency in that fight by throwing more punches than he had in his loss to Andre Dirrell in March. Instead, Abraham threw few punches and mostly just covered up taking shots and throwing wild haymaker punches from time to time.

Abraham ended up losing badly by the scores of 119-109, 120-108 and 120-108. The loss was an even worse one for Abraham than the Dirrell fight, because at least in that bout he had Dirrell looking nervous in the 10th and 11th rounds before Abraham was disqualified in the 11th for hitting Dirrell when he was down from a slip. But against Froch, Abraham failed to really commit to an attack and looked like he was worried about getting hit too much. For a fighter that many people see as fearless, Abraham looked full of fear and seemed to be fighting a safety first fight to prevent from getting knocked out.

If Abraham had the height and reach, he could have fought Froch without getting hit a lot but since Abraham is lacking in those categories, he needed to be able to take punishment in order to give it. Alas, Abraham didn’t appear to want to get hit and failed to really attack Froch aggressively as he needed to for him to get the win. Next year, Abraham has got an arguably tougher opponent in 26-year-old Ward. That’s going to be a really tough fight for Abraham, because Ward has got better hand speed, defense and foot speed than Froch.

Ward is roughly the same height as Froch at 6’1″, and that means that Abraham will be giving up a lot of size like he was against Froch. The good news is that Ward likes to fight on the inside, which is where Abraham likes to fight. The bad thing is that Abraham will be entering the fight with two straight losses and his confidence will be at an all time low as he enters the fight. Abraham hasn’t just been beaten by Dirrell and Froch, he’s been dominated in both fights and made to look bad in both. That’s not a good thing for a fighter to have mentally, and Abraham will likely be coming into the fight feeling low. He’s got to be at 100% mentally and physically for him to beat a guy like Ward.