Arthur Abraham - Criminally Underrated
Ahh, good old Arthur Abraham... People have talked a lot of **** about him in recent years. Let's look at the facts...
As a middleweight, he was undefeated and had 30 victories, 24 by knockout. He was a solid guy who could throw a hard punch and he had an iron jaw, he broke it in his first fight against the hard-hitting undefeated Edison Miranda and he still managed to win. In other words, one can't deny that Arthur was a great middleweight fighter.
However, then he moved to super middleweight. He has had 12 fights in this division. He has lost 4, arguably 5 (the Shiheppo match was controversial), of his matches. The losses against Froch, Ward and Dirrell really shouldn't be used as an argument to prove anything bad against Arthur Abraham. Anyone who knows anything about these guys know that there is no shame in losing to such quality fighters. What this means is, that while Arthur is not the top of the super middleweight division, he certainly doesn't sucks. In fact, he got some respectable wins in super middleweight to prove it.
He defeated Robert Stieglitz, who is a solid opponent. He defeated Jermain Taylor, who is a solid opponent that had just dominated Froch until Froch stopped him. He also defeated Mehdi Bouadla and Piotr Wilczewski. Those two are not "great" wins, but neither of them just goes around losing to nobodies, if you can beat them, you're at the very least above average.
Now, Arthur is obviously getting older and his power is disappearing, scoring less and less stoppages. He is starting to have some slips. The loss to Stieglitz in their rematch, the Shiheppo controversy right after, etc... I also think that Arthur may lose the third match against Stieglitz at this point, although I hope he wins.
My point is, no one is claiming that Arthur is the best in the super middleweight division. He is one of my favourites, but I can see that some are better. But that some people are denying to give Froch or Ward any credit for beating Arthur, that is just ridicolous...
Respect Arthur for what he is. A very good middleweight and a good super middleweight who is on the slip at the moment. I don't want to bash Golovkin, I expect big things from Golovkin. But see how much love Golovkin gets from fans. Golovkin have not achieved more than Arthur at middleweight yet and I doubt that Golovkin will move up to super middleweight like Arthur did. It doesn't make sense to praise Golovkin while bashing Arthur. Maybe in the future, but not at the moment.
As a middleweight, he was undefeated and had 30 victories, 24 by knockout. He was a solid guy who could throw a hard punch and he had an iron jaw, he broke it in his first fight against the hard-hitting undefeated Edison Miranda and he still managed to win. In other words, one can't deny that Arthur was a great middleweight fighter.
However, then he moved to super middleweight. He has had 12 fights in this division. He has lost 4, arguably 5 (the Shiheppo match was controversial), of his matches. The losses against Froch, Ward and Dirrell really shouldn't be used as an argument to prove anything bad against Arthur Abraham. Anyone who knows anything about these guys know that there is no shame in losing to such quality fighters. What this means is, that while Arthur is not the top of the super middleweight division, he certainly doesn't sucks. In fact, he got some respectable wins in super middleweight to prove it.
He defeated Robert Stieglitz, who is a solid opponent. He defeated Jermain Taylor, who is a solid opponent that had just dominated Froch until Froch stopped him. He also defeated Mehdi Bouadla and Piotr Wilczewski. Those two are not "great" wins, but neither of them just goes around losing to nobodies, if you can beat them, you're at the very least above average.
Now, Arthur is obviously getting older and his power is disappearing, scoring less and less stoppages. He is starting to have some slips. The loss to Stieglitz in their rematch, the Shiheppo controversy right after, etc... I also think that Arthur may lose the third match against Stieglitz at this point, although I hope he wins.
My point is, no one is claiming that Arthur is the best in the super middleweight division. He is one of my favourites, but I can see that some are better. But that some people are denying to give Froch or Ward any credit for beating Arthur, that is just ridicolous...
Respect Arthur for what he is. A very good middleweight and a good super middleweight who is on the slip at the moment. I don't want to bash Golovkin, I expect big things from Golovkin. But see how much love Golovkin gets from fans. Golovkin have not achieved more than Arthur at middleweight yet and I doubt that Golovkin will move up to super middleweight like Arthur did. It doesn't make sense to praise Golovkin while bashing Arthur. Maybe in the future, but not at the moment.
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