By Jason Kim: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (24-0, 13 KO’s) did a number on German based challenger Arthur Abraham (32-3, 26 KO’s) on Saturday night in a fairly one-sided 12 round decision win at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Abraham, 31, looked like he had training for a three round fight instead of a 12 rounder, as he had nothing left after the 3rd.

Abraham still remained powerful after the first three rounds, but his game plan dissolved and he stopped jabbing and applying a lot of pressure like he had been doing in the first three rounds. Without having to worry about pressure from Abraham, Ward was able to pick the much slower Abraham off with stinging jabs and right hands for the remainder of the fight. Abraham was effectively reduced to throwing wild haymaker shots, most of which missed badly.

Occasionally, Abraham would land a really big shot but without following up with anything after that, it was meaningless. If there was ever a case where Abraham would have a chance to win it was in this fight with this referee, as the referee never allowed Ward to do any kind of inside fighting at all. Each time the two fighters came to the inside the referee Luis Pabon rushed in immediately and separated the two. I’d never seen a referee that quick to prevent any kind of inside action before.

The closest I can think of was with referee Joe Cortez when he refereed the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana fights. However, Pabon seemed even less tolerant to inside action than Cortez was in those two fights. As a result, Ward had to be content with beating Abraham from the outside, which as it turns out, was very easy for him.

The win now leaves Ward to await the Super Six semifinals June 4th bout between WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch and challenger Glen Johnson. That fight appears to be an evenly matched fight and it’s hard to say which guy will emerge to face Ward in the finals.