Boston Herald, MA
Feb 22 2015

Abraham retains super middle title on points over Smith

Sunday, February 22, 2015
Associated Press

BERLIN — Arthur Abraham retained his WBO super middleweight belt by
defeating Paul Smith of England by unanimous decision for the second
time on Saturday.

The judges scored their rematch 116-112, 117-111, 117-111 in favor of
Abraham, who again dominated in the face of a spirited challenge from
Smith. Smith was angered to lose their first bout in September in
Kiel, Germany, but there could no doubt about the winner here.

The Armenian-born German seemed comfortable taking Smith’s punches and
was more effective with his own, delivering punishing barrages that
the Liverpudlian did well to weather.

“It was a tough fight. He fought to the end, and he took a lot of hard
punches. Respect to him,” Abraham said.

Abraham was able to pound his way through with right-left
combinations. Smith repelled with counterpunches, but Abraham’s
superior strength was apparent, despite a lull in the sixth round.

“I told my coach that I needed a break in the sixth,” Abraham joked.
“The next opponent will be Robert Stieglitz or Felix Sturm. Let’s see
what management comes up with.”

The 35-year-old improved to 42-4 (28 KOs) after making the third
defense of the minor belt he won back from Stieglitz by split decision
in March 2014. Smith dropped to 35-5 (20 KOs).

From: A. Papazian