(Photo Wende) By Jim Dower: WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (36-3, 28 KOs) looked really sloppy tonight in beating #14 WBO Mehdi Bouadla (26-5, 11 KOs) by an 8th round TKO at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayern, Germany. Bouadla was cut on the right eyelid in the 7th, and that led to fight being halted in the 8th because Bouadla was unable to see through the blood pouring into his eye and he was just getting clobbered by Abraham.
The fight had a predictable pattern where Abraham would dominate the first two-thirds of the round, and would then back up to the ropes to let Bouadla have his turn at throwing shots. After getting tired of taking Bouadla’s punches, Abraham would then up with flurries and would finish the round in this manner.
Abraham seemed to fight like he was just using the fight as a sparring session because he stayed in 2nd gear for most of it, like he was toying with Bouadla and didn’t want to all out to finish off his over-matched opponent.
Bouadla looked like a miniature version of Abraham. He showed good power and nice combinations, but the problem was he didn’t have the size compete. Bouadla looked like a junior middleweight masquerading as a super middleweight. He was way too small for this division, and his power wasn’t enough to really bother Abraham, although he did show good power.
In the 8th round, Abraham really unloaded on Bouadla, who had stopped punching and was just taking terrible head shots. The blood was pouring out of Boudla’s right eye and nose and he just didn’t have the vision to keep fighting.
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