By Mark Vester
At Ostseehalle in Kiel, Germany, IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (29-0, 23KOs) retained his title with a tough twelve round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Lajuan Simon (21-1, 12KOs). The scores were 117-110, 118-109 and 117-110.
Simon came out with a good jab while Abraham took the round off to feel him out. Abraham began to work in the second, putting some hard counters in the bank. During the third, Simon went down from a combination. He was able to recover well and went on to do some good work in the following round by timing Abraham's punches with his own counters. Abraham returned to form in the fifth with wide hooks and hard combinations. Simon did most of the work in the sixth as Abraham appeared to take another round off and barely threw anything.
Abraham began to pick up the pace in the seventh, landing several power punches that shook Simon up and made him cover up to get out of danger. Simon came back in the eight, picking up the pace and being more active to try and outhustle the hometown champion. Abraham began to pick up pace again in the ninth and tenth rounds, not by much but enough to win the rounds. Abraham appeared to be tired and some began to wonder if he stuggled to make weight for this fight. He was landing harder punches but Simon to his credit was able to take them and threw some of his own in return.
The champion came out with a surge in the eleventh, wanting to close strong in the championship rounds. Abraham moved forward and threw power combinations to push Simon back. Simon has some chin because Abraham was landing some huge hooks in the eleventh. During the twelfth, Abraham continued to punish Simon with big punches and Simon continued to somehow take the shots and last until the final bell.
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