Los Angeles, California — Andre Ward (24-0, 13 KOs) weathered an early push from Arthur Abraham (32-3, 26 KOs) to secure his third Super Six victory and a spot in the tournament finals.
Reversing his trademark strategy of minimal punching in the early rounds, Abraham came out pressing Ward behind his jab. Abraham was able to land a few overhand rights and kept Ward constantly circling. The champion responded by focusing hard left jabs at Abraham’s body.
After three competitive rounds, the momentum swung to Ward starting in round four. The Oakland titlist put Abraham back into his peek-a-boo defensive shell with hard hooks to the pit of the stomach. In the fifth, Abraham visibly heaved and took several steps back after getting stabbed repeatedly downstairs with Ward’s jab.
Ward had his most commanding round in the seventh by opening up several times with 3-4 punch combinations. Abraham continued meekly following Ward and was badly outworked in both the eighth and ninth.
Arthur Abraham would have brief success in the 12th when he landed two jarring left hooks. Ward declined to run and backed Abraham off with a right hook to close out the fight.
The scorecards of 120-108, 118-110 and 118-111 showed Ward’s dominance. He will now face the winner of June 4’s Carl Froch-Glen Johnson bout in the Super Six Finals.
“I think that’s a 50-50 fight,” Ward explained in his post-fight interview. “You can never count Glen Johnson out. Carl Froch is a warrior. I’m just looking forward to the winner in the finals, baby.”
Abraham suffers his third consecutive Super Six loss after starting off with the tournament’s only KO over Jermain Taylor. Despite murmurings of him being under-sized compared to other 168-pounders, Abraham affirmed that he will not leave the division.
“I’m sad. I’m not happy about this,” Abraham said. “I’ll stay at super-middleweight.”
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 