By Cliff Rold
It was brutal, dirty, bloody, controversial, thrilling. It was also, if you live in the United States, more myth than reality. HBO displayed a few minutes of highlights months later, but the fight itself has been relegated to YouTube and trading since it took place at the Rittal Arena in Wetzlar, Hessen, Germany on September 23, 2006.
That will all change this week. Saturday’s non-title rematch between German IBF Middleweight titlist Arthur Abraham (26-0, 21 KO) and power-punching Edison Miranda (30-2, 26 KO) will be taking place in the U.S. and broadcast on Showtime. Abraham is currently seen as the biggest threat at 160 lbs. to World Champion Kelly Pavlik, and for good reason. He brings a proven chin, hard jab, and crippling power into the ring.
That doesn’t make a showdown inevitable. Abraham’s toughest fight by far, and so far, came against the then undefeated Miranda; the wild Colombian can be expected to provide a second helping of hell. It’s the sort of match that can set the table for Abraham in his quest to become the rare German-market battler to garner a serious audience abroad, or send him back home to the obscurity of protected fare like Sven Ottke and Zsolt Erdei. Overall, it is only the second time Abraham has traveled in his career and Showtime is doing right by the fans, preparing for his arrival by replaying Abraham-Miranda I throughout the week.
Writing for Pedro Fernandez’s Ring Talk at the time, a viewing of the original German broadcast caused this scribe to opine that it “might well have been the dirtiest fight of the year…it was also entertaining as hell.” Having not seen it again since, this seemed the perfect time to pull the tape to see if the fight lives up to the memory.
So here now, a post-facto review, round by round, of Abraham-Miranda I.
Round One
At the opening bell, both men go about the business of measuring the distance of the fight, Miranda circling pawing with the jab, Abraham missing with a big lead right. Abraham pulls his guard high and tight, Miranda whacks at the gloves, and Abraham has two left hooks blocked. Miranda uses his jab to work Abraham to the ropes where he opens up with hard, mostly defended, jabs and rights to the head and body. Back at mid-ring, Abraham lands a long right and then a shorter one along the ropes. A right to the body misses but a left does not. Miranda misses with a right but comes forward. Abraham jabs him towards the ropes, has a right blocked and then connects with a left and right downstairs. In the closing seconds, both men go into a clinch and take a whack at the back of each others heads. Abraham 10-9
Round Two
Miranda’s pressure is the story of the second as he stays on top of Abraham almost constantly. Some hard rights to the body get Abraham’s attention but, as in the first, the high guard consumes most of Miranda’s best work. With the round leaning towards the Colombian, Abraham steals it in the last thirty seconds. A glancing right hand from distance and missing left put Miranda to the ropes followed by a flush right upstairs and then two hard gut shots. Another right in the corner snaps Miranda’s head back and Abraham slips a right with his back to the ropes seconds before the bell. As the clang sounds to bring the round to a close, referee Randy Neumann yells time, once and then four more times as Miranda lets loose a limp jab and left hook, prompting a three-punch salvo from Abraham before they are separated. Both men hawk each other, taking an initial step forward before settling in the corner. Abraham 20-18
Round Three
It’s all jabs and haymakers early in the third as Miranda continues to struggle with the defense of Abraham. A left to the body gets in for Miranda; Abraham meets it with two missing shots to the body and snaking right to the jaw. Miranda throws a couple dozen shots that may well all have hit nothing but leather and elbow and Abraham lands a looping flush left. Abraham backs him to the ropes and lets loose a multi-punch combination, the final left-right landing and jerking Miranda’s head back before the challenger spins away. Another right-left lands and wobbles Miranda who backs to the ropes and leans forward only to have Abraham press his right arm into his neck and fire a right to the kidneys. A final winging left from Abraham marks the last scoring blow of the round. Abraham 30-27
Round Four
Jabbing early leads to some wild misses by Abraham and some effective body work from Miranda. Abraham fires back with two to the body and a left hook upstairs. An exchange of flurries ends with Miranda eating a right on the ropes. Miranda traps Abraham in the corner as a right hand is blocked but the left gets through. Abraham clinches and pushes off before nailing Miranda with a snapping right that again wobbles his man. Miranda reaches to grab as Abraham misses the follow-up shots but, after a brief respite lands a crushing left hook that again hurts Miranda. Miranda holds again, escapes, eats a right, and blocks a left hook. Another Abraham left lands on the temple followed by a lunging right on the ropes. The right side of Abraham’s face is swelling up (this being the round where Miranda broke his jaw) and he goes to the ropes to end the round. Abraham 40-36
Round Five
Abraham’s mouth is open to start the round as he moves away from Miranda. Two left hooks, and then a right land as Miranda is again driven to the ropes. Miranda spins out and continues to pursue, landing a nice right high on the head. A left uppercut rips through Abraham’s glove, and a right gets around the high guard before Abraham reaches to clinch, clubbing Miranda in the back of the head with a forearm. Miranda responds with a headbutt to the left side of Abraham’s head, which is also now swelling. Abraham grabs his head and Randy Neumann calls time before heading to the judges table to rule intentional headbutt.
Here’s where the bout’s big controversy kicks in.
Neumann allows Abraham five minutes for foul recovery and Abraham heads to his own corner where his corner is inexplicably allowed to work on him, and his broken jaw, during the break. A man with an IBF patch on his jacket can be seen talking to Neumann, mouthing something about what would happen if they ‘stop the fight.’ Seconds later, Neumann can be heard asking ‘what round is this?’ Abraham nods his head no and his corner signals to the referee that he can not continue. Neumann says to someone outside the ring that “He can’t fight. What do you want to do? Intentional foul; we go to the cards. It’s the fifth round, they have to score that round.” Neumann then walks across the ring and deducts two points from Miranda for the foul. Neumann then heads back to his conversation with the officials and, while not audible on camera, is apparently told that the foul involved would not send the fight to the cards and instead would be a TKO win for Miranda if Abraham could not continue. He asks Abraham if he’d like to go on and Abraham seems to say no before someone outside the ring hollers yes. Abraham leans over the ropes, apparently to be informed that he will lose if he does not go on. Supplied with new information, Abraham agrees to continue and the fight is waved back on. The entire ordeal plays out in just under five minutes.
Returning to action, Abraham immediately jumps on Miranda, landing a lead left hook, then a right and left along the ropes. Two more rights land with Abraham chasing before a grazing right from Miranda sends Abraham to the ropes. Abraham puts Miranda in a head lock and the rounds winds to a close. It was Abraham’s frame, but at some price, and through some odd journeying. Abraham 50-43
Round Six
Abraham comes out with the jab and much more footwork, circling rapidly. Miranda throws combos along the ropes and Abraham lands a left-right clean at mid-ring. A right lands from Miranda and Abraham backs into the ropes, his knees buckled. A left lands by Miranda and then another right grazes off of a ducking foe. Miranda works Abraham in the corner and then gets caught with a long right towards ring center. Miranda responds with a right hand and continues to outwork Abraham up to the bell for his first clear, winning round. Abraham 59-53
Round Seven
Abraham is again on his bike, looking for distance and chances to counter. Miranda lands a right upstairs. Abraham a left to the body off the ropes. Miranda misses an uppercut but continues to press. A left uppercut lands right on the waistline, followed by a left uppercut upstairs and a right hand. Neumann jumps in and deducts a point for the low blow though Abraham hardly seems bothered. Quickly resuming the action, Miranda lands a right uppercut on a lunging Abraham. Another body shots lands high on Abraham’s right hip and Neumann again jumps in with a deduction. Abraham lands a nice 1-2 in the bouts last half, but opts mostly to be away from Miranda. When caught on the ropes in the closing thirty seconds, a Miranda right pierces the guard and lands on the face. Miranda slips a three-punch counter combo and lands another right before the bell to win a round he can’t with two points off. Abraham 68-61
Round Eight
Abraham lands three hard rights after a clinch to open the action in eight. He continues to hammer Miranda with lacing shots on the ropes as Miranda leans back to get away. Miranda gets away and lands two rights of his own. Abraham stumbles trying to pedal away, but Miranda eventually find him with another right on the ropes. He continues to rake through and around Abraham’s gloves, tasting only one counter right, before Abraham wraps and clubs Miranda to the back of the head twice. Miranda returns the foul. A left hook just prior to the thirty second mark hurts Abraham who all but falls into the ropes as Miranda comes forward. Both men throw bombs up to the bell but nothing serious finds its mark. Abraham 77-71
Round Nine
It starts anew with Miranda hunting an Abraham whose mouth is a gaping wound at this point (later revealed to have been broken in two places and sealed with a metal plate). Miranda continues to land jarring stuff on the ropes but Abraham lands a short, twisting right to the jaw. Another right lands solid for the titlist off the ropes but Miranda immediately connects with a right hook that sends him back a step. Another long right catches Miranda who goes to the ropes for another and a clash of heads as Abraham lunges. They clinch and Abraham grasps the ropes until Neumann adds some muscle to separate the men. Miranda continues working to the body and head, garnering another warning for a waist level shot before Abraham lands a right that rocks Miranda and brings a roar from the crowd. After a clinch, Abraham walks away with he back turned and Miranda run forward only to be clipped by a right from a pivoting Abraham. Miranda lands two right but in the closing seconds a left hand wobbles Miranda into the ropes, joined by two hammering rights amidst a flurry of action. Miranda’s left eye, which had begun swelling earlier, is all but shut. Abraham 87-80
Round Ten
Amidst all the violence through the first nine, it is the tenth which might be the most savage so far as Miranda wails away at an Abraham who is looking largely to survive after being stung with right hands early. Using a combination of movement, clinches and headlocks, Abraham’s supplies token, if still hard offense while Miranda almost never stops moving his hands. A right on the ropes towards the end of the round sees Abraham again walk away with his back turned; Neumann asks him if he alright and Abraham attempts to flurry for the judges in the closing seconds but winds up tasting right-fisted leather instead. Abraham 96-90
Round Eleven
The walk away technique gets a stern warning from Nuemann to Abraham early on. A clinch along the ropes sees Abraham again grabbing the top rope until Neumann forcibly shoves the fighters apart. A right lands flush but then another lands below the belt, if again high on the cup, and Abraham takes a few minutes to recover. Neumann summons a return to the action, ultimately deducting another point from Miranda as the fight resumes. Abraham stays on his bike, neither man connecting with anything much more than air for most of the last half of the round until Abraham lands a right-left just before the bell. Close, tough round to score. 106-99
Round Twelve
Both men clearly exhausted, Miranda moves forward with heavy steps, looking to load leverage into each shot. The logic is clear before the opening bell: Miranda needs a knockout. He doesn’t get. In a dramatic three minutes that sees few actual punches land, Miranda stalks from bell to bell, mostly missing, as the fight winds down. Rold’s Final Retro Scorecard: Abraham 115-109
The Official Cards: 114-109, 115-109, 116-109
Two years later, this fight remains must-see stuff on multiple levels: the officiating, the toll each man puts on the other, the gameness of Abraham gutting through seven rounds he really didn’t look like he wanted to fight. It also remains the best commercial for the rematch. But don’t take my word for it…check it out for yourself this week.
Abraham-Miranda I airs Monday, June 16 at 10 PM EST on Showtime2 and at various other times throughout the week.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com