Abraham vs. Taylor: Arthur is tailor made for Jermain

By Boxing News - 10/05/2009 - Comments

abraham434558By Jason Kim: If there was a fighter that is absolutely tailor made for Jermain Taylor in the Super Six tournament, it’s Arthur Abraham. The two will be meeting in the first part of the group I Super Six tournament on October 17th, in Berlin, Germany. What makes Abraham such an perfect opponent for Taylor to get off to a good start in the tourney is the slow pace that Abraham likes to fight at.

Abraham tends to peck away at his opponents, landing an occasional shot or two much of the time. Abraham comes to life for brief three to five punch flurries that he likes to throw, often near the end of the rounds. Abraham doesn’t put a lot of steady pressure on his opponents.

Instead, he does his best work when he can load up on a handful of punches to score points or take out his opponent with. Taylor does really well when facing a fighter that sets a slow pace. He has stamina issues, so when he goes up against a fighter like Kelly Pavlik or Carl Froch, two classic pressure fighters, Taylor has problems because he quickly runs out of gas before long. Abraham has stamina problems as well, which is why he prefers to fight at a slow pace.

Even if he wanted to, it’s highly unlikely that Abraham would be able to fight hard for three minutes of every round without tiring out and needing a rest break. Abraham used to like to take breaks on the ropes where he would cover up and wait. It looks as if Abraham’s trainers have broken that bad habit of Abraham, but he still retreats to the ropes periodically.

If Abraham isn’t on the ropes resting, he likes to stand with his hands guarding his face. He’ll take a lot of shots and then fire off a short combination. This probably isn’t going to work well against Taylor, because it won’t cause him to expend energy and it will allow Taylor to use his jab rather than his power shots, which tend to tire Taylor out.

Taylor has the better overall physical tools than Abraham. Taylor has the faster hands, the better jab and the quicker combinations compared to Abraham. Taylor’s chin and power isn’t as good as Abraham, but it might not matter unless Abraham can put together enough punches in a row to hurt Jermain.

It took a sustained flurry from Pavlik and Froch to take Taylor out, and that was after both of them had tired Taylor out by pressing him hard from the start of the fight. Abraham won’t be able to pressure Taylor like them, so he’s going to have to try to make every punch count, because Taylor will be winning the rounds with his fast combinations and his excellent jab.

Abraham hasn’t fought a fighter with the talent that Taylor possesses. Abraham has had it quite easy while defending his International Boxing Federation title for the past three years, beating a huge number of mediocre opponents. Out of the entire bunch, Edison Miranda has probably been the best of them and he gave Abraham a great deal of trouble in their first fight after breaking his jaw with a big power punch in the 5th round.

Taylor has struggled in the past year, losing twice to Pavlik and once to Froch, but he may get past Abraham if he can remember to pace himself enough. Taylor is working on his conditioning for this bout, but it will probably be an issue for him. Taylor won’t want to step on the gas for fear of tiring out, so he’ll need for Abraham to fight in his customary slow patter for Taylor to succeed.

I think Taylor will win this fight easily. Abraham is kind of like Bernard Hopkins with his slow deliberate style of fighting. Abraham will be trying to explode on Taylor to try and impress the judges. I doubt it will if Taylor is outworking him for the vast portion of every round.



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