By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (32-2, 26 KO’s) has never been stopped before during his eight-year pro career but on Saturday night against WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (23-0, 13 KO’s), I see Abraham taking the easy way out of the fight by either quitting during the action or in between rounds to escape the one-sided beating being inflicted upon him by the much more talented Ward.

Ward’s trainer is picking his fighter to score a knockout in this fight on Saturday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. I don’t see it as a clear cut knockout win. I think Abraham can take a lot of punishment without hitting the canvas. However, Abraham’s weakness is the mind. He looked defeated in his bout with the blazing fast Andre Dirrell last year in March and seemed to get discouraged early in the fight and wasn’t really trying hard until he got a flash knockdown in the 10th.

But instead of keeping his head and focusing on trying to set Dirrell up for a perfect shot, Abraham lost it and ended up fouling Dirrell in the 11th, a move that caused Abraham to be disqualified. In Abraham’s next fight against Carl Froch, Abraham just never got into the fight. He was beaten after the first couple of rounds and just stopped trying in the fight until the 12th round when he finally decided to attack Froch.

Unfortunately, it was too late by then and Abraham couldn’t put together a big enough shot to take the British fighter out. Abraham is now fighting the most complete fighter in the Super Six tournament in the form of the 27-year-old Ward. I think this is going to be an even worse fight for Abraham than his bouts against Dirrell and Froch. It’s not that Ward is better than Dirrell, but rather Abraham is going to have all the mental baggage he’s carrying around from the Dirrell and Froch beatings and he’s going to likely give up on himself early instead of seeing it as something he needs to work through.

I see an ugly quit job on Saturday with Abraham giving a no mas in front of a packed house at the Home Depot Center. The fans will likely be furious and will no doubt shower Abraham with boos as he walks around the ring shaking his head and looking sheepish.