By Jake Donovan
It might be a while before a formidable middleweight challenger emerges in North America, but Germany is certainly doing its part to try to motivate lineal champion Kelly Pavlik.
Last week, it was Felix Sturm turning back the challenge of Sebastian Sylvester to maintain his alphabet hardware and remain in the middleweight sweepstakes.
This week, Arthur Abraham reminded the boxing world why he’s universally regarded as the best non-American middleweight, as he successfully defended his alphabet title for the eighth time with a sixth round stoppage of Raul Marquez at the Jako Arena in Bamberg, Germany.
The bout served as the main event of a card that aired live on pay-per-view in the United States, courtesy of Integrated Media.
October 4 was the originally scheduled date for this middleweight fight, only to be postponed five weeks after Abraham suffered the flu the morning of the planned event. The five-week delay proved to greatly benefit Abraham, who entered the fight at a sculpted 160 lb.
The action that transpired Saturday evening hardly proved to be worth the wait; the bout was denied a conclusive ending when Marquez was forced to retire on his stool after six rounds.
The bout got off to a deliberate start, as Abraham worked behind the jab while attempting to find the perfect range to follow up with the right hand. Marquez spent most of the opening round fighting on the defensive, awaiting counter opportunities that rarely surfaced.
Marquez decided to make his own music in the second, setting the tempo with a long jab from the southpaw stance. Several straight lefts found their mark, driving Abraham to the ropes, though the undefeated titlist was able to keep his challenger honest with counter right hands.
The crowd, awaiting any excuse to erupt, was given several moments in the third. The right was finding its way home, as did an uppercut that drew a roar from the partisan fans. A chronic bleeder, Marquez’ face began to redden with swelling and cuts as the round wore on. Abraham treated it as a bulls-eye, opening up his attack in the second half of the round with a flurry of punches.
It’s a long way from Houston to Germany, too far for Marquez to roll over and play opponent. This much was shown at the start of the fourth, when the 37-year old veteran roared off of his stool, landing jabs and straight lefts.
Showing his bravado, Abraham banged on his mid-section and waved his arms, daring his foe to charge in. Marquez never took the bait, instead mounting a well-calculated attack, only to be interrupted when referee Wayne Kelly decided that one of his lefts strayed a little too low.
The break in action benefitted Abraham, who picked up the pace in the second half of the round, possibly stealing it on the judges’ scorecards. The momentum carried over into the fifth and sixth, as Abraham’s jab/right hand combination continued to prove effective.
Head-rattling jabs by Abraham helped bring the crowd back into what had been a relatively tame fight through the first five rounds. The only thing that slowed down Abraham’s attack was a brief intervention from the referee in the sixth, warning the Armenian for holding and hitting. No problem, said the middleweight titlist, who was just as effective from the outside.
Abraham appeared to just start warming up when all of a sudden the fight was called. Marquez sat on his stool being attended to by his cutman while another cornerman informed referee Wayne Kelly that their guy was done for the evening.
The official time was 3:00 of round six.
With the win, Abraham cruises to 28-0 (23KO), scoring his sixth consecutive stoppage. The performance caps off an impressive 2008, in which Elvin Ayala, Edison Miranda and now Marquez all succumbed to the heavy hands of the transplanted Armenian now living and fighting out of Germany.
Talks have surfaced of a possible unification match with Felix Sturm, though the two are with rival promoters. The ante has recently been upped, and with both coming off of dominant performances, the demand is certainly there for such a head-on collision, while both hope to further add to their respective causes for a hopeful shot at division leader Kelly Pavlik.
We’ve sung this song before, but Marquez now appears to have run through all nine lives of his career. A member of the 1992 US Olympic boxing squad and former junior middleweight titlist, the loss ends a seven-fight unbeaten streak as he dips to 41-4-1 (29KO).
The streak began in 2006, when he returned following a two-year break from the ring. Most notable among his comeback stretch was the win that set up this very title shot, an upset decision win over previously unbeaten Giovanni Lorenzo this past June in Florida. The bout opened a Showtime telecast that featured Abraham’s stateside debut, a fourth-round knockout in his non-title rematch of Edison Miranda.
All four of Marquez’ career losses have come via the stoppage route, mostly attributable to his leaky defense and paper skin. Most disheartening about this loss was the fact that he was forced to remain on his stool in one corner while Abraham was complaining of a rib injury to his handlers across the ring.
The only complaints from this point going forward will be the amount of time it will take for the heavily muscled middleweight to get his crack at Pavlik in what figures to be the next great middleweight fight.
IN OTHER ACTION
Enad Licina (15-1, 9KO) may or may not go on to big things at cruiserweight, but looked like Goliath to Otis “Triple OG” Griffin’s David in scoring a third round stoppage.
Griffin (19-4-2, 7KO) boxed smartly in the first two rounds, even if not taking either of them on the cards. But his game plan quickly unraveled in the third. Licina stunned and dropped Griffin along the ropes for the bout’s first knockdown, then pretty much duplicated the sequence moments later, this time prompting a stoppage, 1:38 into the third round.
It seems so long ago that the Sacramento (CA)-based Griffin was the last man standing in the short-lived Fox reality series “The Next Great Champ.” The natural light heavyweight has now lost three of his last four, all three losses coming by stoppage.
Licina, a Serb now residing in Frankfurt, Germany, extends his winning streak to 12 in a row.
The show was presented by Sauerland Event.
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
