Filed under: WBA, WBC, Boxing Rumors, Showtime, FanHouse Exclusive
England's Carl Froch easily out-boxed Germany's Arthur Abraham in Saturday's Showtime televised super middleweight (168 pounds) bout at the Hartwall Arena, regaining by a lopsided, unanimous decision, the WBC belt he lost the same way to Denmark's former WBA king Mikkel Kessler in April.Judges Oren Shellenberger and Max DeLuca each scored it a shutout, 120-109, for Froch, with Burt Clements awarding one round to Abraham by the score of 119-109.
"I'm not sure what happened. Nothing worked today. Everything that I planned to do did not work," said Abraham. "Nothing worked, he was the better man tonight, and he won."
Nicknamed "The Cobra," the 33-year-old Froch rose to 27-1, with 20 knockouts against Abraham (31-2, 25 KOs), a 30-year-old former middleweight (160 pounds) champion, as part of Group Stage No. 3 of Showtime's Super Middleweight World Boxing Classic tournament.
"It was a hard fight, but I made it look easy because of the tactics that I applied. But it was hard to stay focused and to concentrate and to do what I had to do to win," Froch told FanHouse during an exclusive interview from Finland, where it was 5 a.m. "I know that it looked to be easy, but that's because I made it look easy. But it was hard to make it easy, if you know what I mean."
Froch-Abraham was the first bout of Showtime's split-site double-header, with WBA titlist Andre Ward (22-0, 13 KOs) -- who dethroned Kessler -- making an out-of-the-tournament defense against Sakio Bika (28-4-2, 19 KOs) from Ward's hometown of Oakland, Calif.
With wins over Kessler and Allan Green (29-2, 20 KOs), Ward already has secured a spot in the semifinals that are slated for early in 2011. Kessler withdrew from the tournament with an eye injury in August, and his replacement, Glen Johnson (51-14-1, 35 KOs) stopped Green in nine rounds on Nov. 6, eliminating Green from the field as well.
Johnson's stoppage of Green earned him three points in the tournament, tying him for the No. 2 seed with Abraham behind Ward's six points for the No. 1 seed, and vaulting Johnson above Froch, who had two points for the fourth seed in the standings.
But Froch now has four points in the standings, which moves him ahead of Abraham and Johnson with three points each. The tie-breaker came down to total scorecard points, which goes to Johnson with 1,021 compared to Abraham's 1,002.
That means Ward and Abraham meet in the semifinals, and Froch faces Johnson. Froch had beaten Andre Dirrell (19-1, 13 KOs) before losing to Kessler. Abraham had knocked out Jermain Taylor, who was replaced by Green after subsequently pulling out of the tournament, before losing by 11th-round disqualification to Dirrell.
"Glen Johnson is old school and he's been around the block a couple of times. He's an old, wise fox, and you've got to give him his respect.," said Froch . "He still knows what he's doing and he picks his punches nicely. He's a great, great fighter and you've got to give him his respect for what he's done."
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Source: http://boxing.fanhouse.com/2010/11/27/carl-froch-dominates-unanimous-decision-over-arthur-abraham/
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