Ringside With Raymundo 10.22.09: The King Still Beatable?

Posted by Raymundo Dioses on 10.22.2009

Arthur Abraham's game plan and knockout of Jermain Taylor seemed to be a perfect plan. But will Abraham's ‘rope a dope' game plan work against the other boxers in the Super Six Tournament? 411’s Raymoundo Dioses doesn’t think so and explains why…


Photo courtesy of Team Sauerland

Arthur Abraham got things off to a hot start with his stunning knockout victory over Jermain Taylor this past weekend during the opening of the ‘Super Six' tournament.

Abraham did a number of things with his victory.

For one, he kept his undefeated record which is currently an impressive 31 victories with 25 knockouts. Second, he proved that titles mean nothing at this day and age in boxing, and aren't needed to gain success in the sport. Three, Abraham provided a first hand look at how exciting this tournament could be with a knockout victory than garnered him three points as the current leader of the group, and probably offered some incentive for the other fighter's to attempt wins via knockout as well. Fourth, Abraham probably ended the career of former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, who has now lost four of his last five with three losses via brutal knockout.

Abraham's victory was impressive, and the Armenian born and Germany based fighter now looks to be a favorite to take it all in the ‘Super Six'.

Yet while watching the fight as it unfolded, it got me to thinking.

Is the King still beatable in this tournament?

I think the answer to that question is yes.

During the first half of the fight, Taylor fought a near flawless bout. Taylor built a lead by being the energizer bunny in the opening rounds, taking the fight to Abraham while staying busy and throwing more often than Abraham did. Meanwhile Abraham stayed content on the outside and absorbed some of Taylor's punches in his ‘peek-a-boo' like style, with both hands clenched in front of his face. It seemed to be that Abraham wanted Taylor to gas himself out, as the former champion was known to do in his recent fights.

All went to fruition as Abraham picked his spots and get busier in the second half, and eventually ended the night with a swooping right hand that left Taylor unconscious for one minute, and gave Abraham first blood in the tourney as the leader of the pack.

Yet would Abraham's ‘rope a dope' game-plan have worked against the other boxers in the tournament? I don't think so.

Next up, Abraham faces Andre Dirrell, who suffered his first career defeat at the hands of Carl Froch in the second showing of the ‘Super Six'. Yet Dirrell fought a boxer's fight, as Froch made it muggy waters, grasping and holding and seeking to fight inside and edged out a split decision victory possibly enhanced by the fact that Froch was born and raised in the city where the fight took place, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.

I'll take nothing away from Jermain Taylor. The Arkansas bred fighter is the best to come out of Little Rock, and had a Hall of Fame worthy career that included amateur titles, an Olympic Bronze Medal and undisputed status for a time as the WBC, IBF, and WBO middleweight champion alongside two decision victories over sure fire Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins.

Yet the other participants in the tourney will probably bring a more defined pressure assault to Abraham, starting with Dirrell and Carl Froch, Abraham's next two opponents in the preliminary bouts before moving to the semi, then final rounds of the tournament. Dirrell is light years faster than Taylor with both hand and foot speed, and Froch is a certified one punch knockout artist as the previous boxer to fell Taylor via knockout. Dirrell will rely on his speed in his bout with Abraham, and Froch will bring his heavy hands to the fight, to which Abraham must seek out other options on how to fight his next two opponents in the tournament.

Then further into the tourney, if he faces the likes of other favorites to win in Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward, and Abraham will find himself against opponents who can apply more effective pressure that won't be so easily absorbed. Abraham is a notoriously slow beginner in fights, and if he allows other fighters to win the first half of fights, the latter halves of the bouts won't be so pleasant for Abraham.

Abraham was very impressive last weekend, yet he will need to fight more versatile fights as the tournament moves forward.

Super Six notes

This tournament is awesome. From the hot shot graphics and photo shoots, to the website which contains both and on the spot commentators calling the action, this is an all around good thing for boxing in general.

I was iffy at first on the format, the round-robin style. Yet I've warmed to it, and the fact that all fights will are scheduled for 12 rounds, an extra point in the scoring system for a knockout victory and that the WBA and WBC middleweight titles will be up for grabs throughout the tourney are great factors to the making of what should be an excellent and memorable piece of boxing history.

Cotto/Pacquiao 24/7

This weekend will mark the episode of Cotto/Pacquiao 24/7, the ground breaking HBO series that has highlighted several mega bouts in boxing in the last few years.

Both camps will be followed by HBO crews, which in the past have captured some memorable happenings leading into a big fight.

From Ricky Hatton flashing his arse' to trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. in playful fashion, to Oscar De La Hoya on the phone with stars like Michael J. Fox inviting them to his fight, to the more recent urine drinking by Juan Manuel Marquez, this series is an entertaining look into a fighters last few weeks heading into a bout.

Thomas Hauser exposes New York Times

Acclaimed boxing writer Thomas Hauser has written a revealing piece on the New York Times current coverage of the sport of boxing.

Hauser conducted a study from July 1 through October 8, 2009, and counted the number of boxing pieces compared to other sports.

"The New York Times no longer covers boxing as an ongoing sport. If a fighter of importance dies, it's noted. On rare occasions, bouts are referenced. But the paper's motto – "All the News That's Fit to Print" – which is prominently displayed in the upper-left hand corner of page one each day, doesn't extend to boxing."

The article can be found on here.

Jermain Taylor

Pretty much every media outlet is calling for his retirement in unison after his loss last weekend. In the sport of boxing, it's hard to ignore the toll it takes on the body as well as the mind, and to tease with doing the sport too long could lead to dire consequences.

Honestly, I had my reservations as to why Jermain Taylor was even picked to be in the Super Six. I recall watching a promo-reel interview of Taylor heading into his rematch with Kelly Pavlik, and he professed that he was a changed fighter this, and a changed fighter that. And I distinctly recall just flat out not believing him. So when Taylor was mentioned for the tournament, I was thinking in my head of better suited fighters who should take his spot.

Boxers run thousands of miles, jump rope, participate in grueling sparring sessions, do push and pull ups until they throw up, hit the speed and heavy bags for hours on end, alter both their eating and living habits, yet the hardest thing for a fighter to do is… retire.

Sadly, I think Taylor will no go quietly into the sunset. What will his cries fall upon deaf ears? Lets all hope so.

Through My Eyes

The Pavlik/Williams fight cancelled again??? AGAIN??? Ahhhh!!!! If you recall previous articles, I was really looking forward to this bout. Oh well. At least we still have Pacquiao/Cotto and Bradley/Peterson to round out the year… I hope the Berto/Mosley fight gets signed soon. It's the politics of boxing holding that one up… In a replacement for Jermain Taylor in the Super Six, if I were king it would be Edison Miranda, who has two disputed losses to both Ward and Abraham. Yet it's probably going to be Allan Green, whom Miranda has beaten already… Everyone is watching EPSN Classic Boxing, right? I recently got to see the Marciano/Louis match, man what a devastating KO of Louis. It reminded me of Corrales/Castillo if Corrales would have been allowed to throw one more punch before the stoppage… Vitlay Klitschko is going to defend his belt once more before 2010 comes, that's pretty impressive, but with a nickname like ‘Dr. Iron Fist', it would be nice to see four to five fights a year instead of three…Don King is hosting a card on Halloween night, Perez v. Agbeko and there will be a costume contest with the best Don King receiving a prize… I dug into my girlfriends DVR and watched the Mike Tyson interview on Oprah. You should to the same…