By Mark Vester
At Max Schmeling Halle in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany, IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (30-0, 24KOs) stopped a game Mahir Oral (25-2, 10KOs) in the tenth round of an exciting fight.
The fight started at a slow pace in the first round. Both fighters were working the jab. Abraham's tight defense was able to block most of Oral's punches. Abraham came out defensive in the second and allowed Oral to get off with a lot of punches. Most of them were blocked. A nice left by was landed by Abraham at the end but the challenger kept coming.
Both fighters went back to the jab in the third. Oral was more active with his and tried to land some right hands behind them. Oral landed two hard rights that pushed Abraham back. Abraham stayed back in a counter-punching mode. The two exchanged some punches at the end, with both of them landing some good shots.
Abraham began to come forward at the start of the fourth. Oral kept him at bay with the jab. A big right by Oral pushed Abraham back. The challenger became a bit braver and the two were exchanging big punches at the center of the ring. Oral appeared to be getting off better because of his speed. Then out of nowhere, Abraham began to unload and let his hands go - dropping Oral with a combination of hard power punches. Oral beat the count and Abraham went right back on the attack with battering punches until the bell rang.
The two came to center at the start of the fifth and went back to exchanging punches off the jab. Oral appeared to have cleared his head by this point and put a lot of pressure on the champion. Abraham was landing some nice counter punch combinations. Oral caught Abraham with a nice combination to send him back to the ropes. Abraham was able to fight his way off and came back with own power punches to close the round.
Oral went to the body in the sixth and switched quickly to the head. A quick combination while Oral was off-balance would send the challenger down for the second time in the contest. Oral seemed fine when he got to his feet and tried to close the round strong by backing Abraham into the corner and letting some punches go. At the start of the seventh, Oral went back to pressuring Abraham by coming forward and throwing punches in bunches. Oral was able to outhustle the champion during most of the action. During the eight, Oral got off with the jab. Abraham exploded during the end of the fight and two exchanged some good shots.
In the ninth, Abraham got a second wind and began to let his hands go again in spurts to send the challenger back with hard punches. They went back to fighting in the tenth. Abraham dropped Oral three times with hard body punch combinations and the fight was stopped by Oral's corner.
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