By Scott Gilfoid: Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime – Former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (32-3, 26 KO’s) has stubbornly decided to stay at super middleweight, even though he’s clearly mediocre at this weight and doesn’t belong. Earlier tonight, Abraham suffered his third defeat in his last four fights when he was badly spanked by the talented American WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (24-0, 13 KO’s) in the semifinals of the Super Six tournament in Carson, California. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 118-110 and 118-111.

The fight was fairly close for the first three rounds, as Abraham was throwing with a lot of power and uncharacteristically fighting hard for three minutes of every round instead of the usual last 20 seconds of the round. The extra exertion on Abraham’s part led to him completely gassing out after only three rounds. Ward was then able to pick Abraham apart from the 4th round on, pummeling him with combinations and making him look like an amateur.

The fight really needed to be stopped because Abraham looked pathetic. I felt sorry for him by the 8th, as he was just a short punching bag with arms. However, after the beating was over and Abraham had lost by a lopsided 12 round decision, I fully expected him to say that he would be immediately moving down in weight back to the middleweight division. But instead of wising up and realizing he has no business fighting at super middleweight against talents like Ward and Andre Dirrell, Abraham stubbornly said he’s going to stick it out at this weight, saying “I gave it my all and fought really hard and will stay at super middleweight.”

Talk about your crazy ideas. I couldn’t dream that foolishness if I wanted to. Abraham needs someone to take some sense into him for his own good. He’s too short, too limited and too slow to compete with the best fighters at this weight.