Photo: Howard Schatz
By Karl Freitag
In a clash of former middleweight world champions, unbeaten Arthur Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) scored a spectacular late knockout over Jermain Taylor (28-4, 17 KOs) before 14,000+ at the sold out O2 World in Berlin, Germany on Saturday night in the first round of SHOWTIME’s “Super Six World Boxing Classic” super middleweight tournament. A huge right hand put Taylor down and out with just seconds left in the fight.
Round One: Mostly a “feeling out” round. Abraham landed a couple of good rights.
Round Two: Taylor hit Abraham with a low blow, and later with a good left hook. Abraham landed some glancing blows when swarming Taylor.
Round Three: Taylor active with his jab, Abraham landed some power shots.
Round Four: Another low blow from Taylor, who began throwing more power shots. Abraham didn’t do much.
Round Five: Abraham much more aggressive, trying to turn the “boxing match” into a fight.
Round Six: Taylor deducted a point for another low blow by referee referee Guadalupe Garcia. Finally some exchanges! Abraham getting the better of it.
Round Seven: Taylor’s jab still working well, but when the fight opens up, it’s Abraham doing more damage.
Round Eight: Abraham lowered his guard trying to entice Taylor to mix it up.
Round Nine. Abraham momentarily staggered Taylor with a huge right hand, but didn’t follow up. Taylor recovered quickly.
Round Ten: Taylor still jabbing. Abraham looking to land big shots.
Round Eleven: Taylor keeping his hands moving. Abraham came on at the end of the round.
Round Twelve: Taylor still jabbing. Abraham connecting with some power shots. Abraham landed a huge right hand knocking out Taylor with seconds left in the fight. Time was 2:54.
Abraham’s KO will have extra significance in the Super Six tournament as each fighter’s three “Group Stage” matchups are for points.
3 points for a KO/TKO victory
2 points for a decision win.
1 point for a draw
0 points for a loss
After the Group Stage, the four fighters with the highest point totals will advance to the single-elimination Semi-Finals. The winners of the Semi-Final bouts will advance to the Finals and fight for the inaugural Super Six World Boxing Classic trophy.
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In a clash between once-beaten cruiserweights, WBC #7/WBA #10/WBO #12/IBF #13 Yoan Pablo Hernandez (20-1, 11 KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over IBF #5 Enad Licina (17-2, 10 KOs). Scores were 118-110, 116-112, 115-113. The bout was for the IBF Inter-Continental cruiserweight title held by Licina going in.
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Heavyweight Rene Dettweiler (25-2, 12 KOs) outpointed Gbenga Oloukun (17-2, 10 KOs) over eight rounds by scores of 77-75, 78-74, 77-75.
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Unbeaten IBF Youth middleweight beltholder Dominik Britsch (16-0, 5 KOs) won a ten round unanimous decision over Michael Recloux (13-9-2, 5 KOs). Scores were 98-92, 99-90, 99-90.
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Unbeaten light heavyweight Artur Hein (10-0, 5 KOs) won an eight round unanimous decision over Roberto Cocco (10-3, 5 KOs).
Other Results:
Amougui Amougou D8 Martin Kempf (cruiserweight)
Lukas Schulz W4 Blanchard Kalambay (cruiserweight)
